US or Israeli F-15s near miss with Mahan Air A310

ChasenSFO

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An Iranian passenger plane flying over Syria went into a nose-dive after nearly colliding with two US fighter jets, Iran's state news agency claimed today.

The official IRIB agency initially reported a single Israeli jet had flown near the plane but later quoted the pilot as saying there were two self-identified US jets.

The pilot of the civilian airliner contacted the jet pilots to warn them about keeping a safe distance and the jet pilots identified themselves as American, IRIB reported.


Video posted by the agency showed a single jet from the window of the plane and comments from a passenger who had blood on his face.

The Iranian plane, belonging to regime-owned Mahan Air, was heading from Tehran to Beirut and landed safely in Lebanon, an airport source told Reuters.

Israel and the United States have long accused blacklisted airliner Mahan Air of ferrying weapons for Iranian-linked guerrillas in Syria and elsewhere.

The near-miss today comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US following the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January.


Iranian airliner nose-dives over Syria in near-miss with US jets

This article was the one with the most information so far I could find on the incident, but is very sensationalist. From the articles I've read, it is unclear if this A310 was actually intercepted for some reason and the intercepting jets did something to spook the pilots into an unannounced dive, of if maybe it was a near miss in cruise. This article claims they were USAF F-15s, but other articles state they may have been Israeli.

It appears that the dive was sharp enough for unsuspecting passengers to hit the ceiling as they weren't belted in or were walking/standing at the time, and the cabin was a real mess with some passengers injured.

Very odd to think an A310 en-route from THR-BEY would be intercepted on a routine passenger flight...
 
Eh, US, Israeli...either way they’re burning our tax dollars to wag the finger and play righteous.
Well as I mostly agree with that statement in cases like this, I'm sure pilots from either country don't just scare the crap out of commercial airlines for the hell of it. There had to be a reason.
 
BBC briefly had a story up that said the Mahan Air flight was flying towards a airbase/positive controlled airspace for either the US or allies in the region so they launched the F15s (or they were already up working CAP) to check it out.
 
If they had visual should be easily able to tell Israeli or US. One’s gray and the other sand/brown/green.
 
I read a story somewhere that a guy thought the afterburners of an F18 doing an intercept of an Iranian aircraft over Syria was a UFO.

What a maroon.
 
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