After a few hours, the flight took off for Dubai, its final destination.
The plane, chartered by Western coalition forces in Afghanistan at the UAE-based company Fly Dubai, would have been contacted by Iranian air traffic controllers who, not being in possession of the flight plan, ordered the pilot to return to space Afghan plane. The latter would have justified the impossibility of reversing the route as it did not have enough fuel to go back, so the provision would have arrived to land at Bandar Abbas airport, in southern Iran.
This version released by the Washington Post has been denied by the State Department which speaks of simple "bureaucratic problems" that make it necessary to land on Iranian territory, without any coercion. Two aircraft from Tehran would still have escorted the flight to the airport of Bandar Abbas, home of the most important Iranian naval base, on the Gulf of Hormuz.
There are other versions from different sources: the plane landed alone; the commander asked to land after he realized he was on a wrong course. So the dynamics of what happened are not certain, but it seems that it will soon be revealed.
Giovanni Caprara
