USAF plane 'forced to land in Iran' (But has since left?)

This one seems to be a pretty odd story -

A US warplane has been forced to land in Iran after violating Iranian territory, the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency has reported.

It said the Falcon aircraft entered Iranian airspace from Turkey, flying at low altitude to avoid radar.

The report said the group was interrogated and allowed to leave, without saying when the incident happened.

The agency said the plane was detected by Iranian fighter jets, which forced it to land at an undisclosed airport.

Passengers included five senior American generals and three civilians, the report said.

The agency said the group was interrogated at the airport and then allowed to leave after it was realised they had entered unintentionally.

More details to follow.

 BBC News

I'm happy that they've been allowed to leave, I really don't fancy the idea of another war at the moment.

 

• Filed under: Incident, Iran, USAF

 The Pentagon are denying the report according to Reuters.

 It's now being suggested that it was a civilian aircraft belonging to a British or Hungarian relief agency.

Thinking back to when the Iranians captured a boat full of Royal Marines and Royal Navy personnel, there were quickly pictures of them all over the news agencies. I can't help but feel that if the Iranians had actually gotten hold of some American Generals then the same would have happened all over again.

The AP are reporting on what now appears to be a spectacular c*ck-up by the Fars news agency -

• It wasn't a US military flight, but a Hungarian civil aircraft 
• Though a civil flight, it was carrying a Hungarian military delegation, not an American one
• It was a Hawker 800, not a Falcon

It looks like the only accurate part of the story was that it happened in Iran and there was an aircraft involved.

 It would have been ironic if this had escalated into military action as none of the initial findings seem true as you pointed out!