Why did planes from Lithuania mysteriously land in Iran?
The planes were meant to go to Sri Lanka and the Philippines but never made it.
Two planes took off from an airport in Lithuania earlier this year and they were each supposed to be flying to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
But they both mysteriously diverted off course, disconnected all means of being detected by air traffic control and then landed in Iran.
The two Airbus A340s were meant to be heading to South Asia in February, however one ended up at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran and the other at Chabahar Konarak Airport.
During their flights from Šiauliai Airport, the transponders on each plane, which enable aircraft to show up on radar systems, were switched off the moment they entered Iranian airspace.
The planes belong to Gambian leasing company Macka Invest – and a third plane, owned by the same company, was also due to depart but was prevented from taking off.
Aurelija Kuezada, director of Šiauliai Airport, said: ‘The plane was due to fly to the Philippines, but we assume that it could have landed in Iran as well.
‘Nothing could have prevented that. So we just didn’t let it go when we found out that the first plane had landed in Iran.’
It all seems very odd, right? So how and why did this happen?
Why did two planes heading for Sri Lanka and the Philippines end up in Iran?
Iran effectively ‘smuggled’ the planes into the country and Mahan Air claimed ownership of both aircraft, Lithuania’s public broadcaster announced on Thursday.
The reason why this happened, it would seem, is because current economic sanctions imposed against Iran by the US over its nuclear program prevent the nation from purchasing new planes.
Oro Navigacija, Lithuania’s state-owned navigation service provider, told vz.lt that none of the three planes had previously raised any suspicions.
It added that their movement outside Lithuanian airspace was operating within the rules of air navigation service providers in other countries.
The incident is said to have caused major concern among Lithuanian authorities.
Iran ‘smuggles’ planes (again)
This isn’t the first time planes have mysteriously ended up in Iran when they weren’t supposed to.
In December 2022, four commercial Airbus A340 planes which had taken off from Johannesburg in South Africa and were bound for Uzbekistan changed course and landed in Iran.
On that occasion, the transponders had also been switched off in exactly the same way they were in February.
The Tehran Times said in 2022 that Iran needed at least 550 aircraft.
But with the sanctions, the country has been unable to buy planes like the Airbus A340, which cost more than £120million.
Just last month, Iran’s president who was labelled the ‘Butcher of Tehran’ died in a helicopter crash, to the relief of many victims who had suffered at his hands.
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