ALERT
Iranian news reports claimed Tuesday that Iran forced a Western aircraft that accidentally entered its airspace to land, then allowed the plane to continue after questioning its passengers.The semiofficial Fars news agency said the plane was American, but the state-owned Al-Alam television quoted an unidentified senior Iranian official as saying it belonged to a European aid agency. Neither report said when the incident took place.
In Washington, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, said he had no information that any such incident had occurred and was checking the report.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said he has no information about the case. Other Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment...Al-Alam, Iran's official Arabic-language television station, quoted a military official saying the plane belonged either to a British or Hungarian relief agency. He said the plane "lost its way" and violated Iranian air space. He said the passengers included American military personnel but he did not elaborate...(AP via Yahoo).
Full Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_plane&printer=1;_ylt=AiF84e1iwRRoEb8qa6jzXOMUewgF
