Bob McCarty Writes

The Iranian News Agency (FARS) is reporting this morning that they forced a U.S. warplane to land after it violated Iranian airspace, according to a Fox News Channel Breaking News Alert moments ago.  A quick glance at the lead story on the FARS web site shows several things wrong with the story that prove it’s a hoax:

• First, the photo accompanying the story is that of an F-4 Phantom, though the story claims that it forced down a U.S. Falcon.  The closest thing to a Falcon is the F-16 “Fighting Falcon,” an aircraft that is impossible to confuse with the F-4.

• Second, the vast majority — if not all — of the F-4s in the U.S. Air Force inventory were retired more than 15 years ago when I was still wearing the uniform.

• Third, the FARS article claims that “the flying crew and passengers, including five US militaries and three civilians, were released after daylong interrogations revealed that they had violated Iranian airspace unintentionally as they were en route to Afghanistan.”  So we’re supposed to believe an F-4 can carry eight people?  That’s laughable.

• Finally, the FARS article claims that the US Falcon and all those aboard left Iran for Afghanistan after receiving takeoff permission from Iranian authorities.  That, my friends, confirms that the story is a hoax.  If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was able to get his hands on eight Americans and an aircraft, he would not let them go so soon without first fully exploiting them for propaganda purposes.

* * *

UPDATE 10/7/08 at 11:18 a.m. Central:  Confirming my belief that Iranian claims of downing a U.S. warplane were false, news reports like this one have confirmed that: (1) No U.S. warplane was forced down by Iranian government forces; and, instead (2) It was a Hungarian civilian aircraft, instead of a U.S. military aircraft, that was forced down.