Conflicting reports about US warplane’s forced landing over Iran

October 12, 2008, 8:01 AM (GMT+02:00)

US Falcon plane

Tehran first identified the plane as an American Falcon which had mistakenly strayed into Iranian airspace and was forced down Monday, Oct. 6. In that report, the eight US officials aboard, including 5 senior military officials, were interrogated overnight and released after 24 hours.

Later, Tehran produced three different versions of the incident: The plane belonged to a European aid agency; it was a Western aid plane– not American – bound for Afghanistan; it was a Hungarian plane with no Americans aboard.

Adding to the mystery, the Pentagon stated Tuesday that that all US aircraft in the Gulf region were accounted for despite the Iranian report.

DEBKAfile’s military sources: None of the versions discloses where the incident occurred, where the American officers were interrogated, who they are and how the Iranians were able to force the aircraft to land. Whatever happened, it appears that Tehran does not want to build the incident up into a confrontation with the Americans although they are going through a hard time over the financial crisis.