Gen. Farzad Esmaili who was speaking to Forced Landing, a documentary featuring the event, told that Iran had informed the ICAO that NATO planes would not use Iranian airspace to reach their destinations; “the ISAF Airbus A300 was entering Iranian airspace in the border with Afghanistan on Friday, 17 local time, quite unaware of the fact that our intelligence located inside borders covered about 100 to 150Km outside the borders as well; the pilot identified the plane as ISAF 04, who transferred NATO and American soldiers and military to Afghanistan,” accounted Gen. Esmaili, “the command center of Khatam al-Anbia air defense base received information by the plane stating that it was a passenger jet, apparently to deceive our air control; the Base launches action in close collaboration with country’s National Aviation Authority, communicating the message to 04 that we believe it was a military plane anyhow, and should land in Bandar Abbas airport,” said the commander.
