How the Airplane Hijacking Became Possible and How the Return Deal Was Made: Hakob Jagharyan

More than 2 months ago, I issued a statement that a Boeing 737 registered as EK-FAA had been hijacked or was taken to Iran under false pretenses. This was noted by former Prime Minister’s adviser Hakob Jagharyan on his Facebook page.

He specifically mentioned, “I also noted that this is a DELIBERATE, MALICIOIS OPERATION of the Armenian aviation authorities. As a result, Armenia is cementing its place on the ‘blacklist’ of global aviation, and may face US sanctions.”

During the past two months, numerous media outlets have covered this issue. They did not allow the authors of this deception and the state officials who supported its implementation through their passivity to breathe for a single day. Everyone understood the full significance and depth of the event.

The US Embassy issued a statement... In brief, with your help, dear journalists and beloved public, we reached the main goal: - The airplane was returned to Armenia, - Armenia avoided potential US sanctions. However, the issue has not yet been finally resolved.

First of all, it is still unclear HOW this deal took place. All these officials boasting of their ineptitude and criminal inaction announced with pride that they managed to bring it back. We saw it. We saw that it was a result of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ efforts.

But will you show us how this hijacking became possible? Will the acting Prime Minister explain how, during his tenure, he overlooked the report submitted to the NSS investigation, which literally described this scenario? - There is another aircraft registered in the Fly Armenia company in Yerevan, but for some reason, it bears the Kazakh state registration UN-.... Will this one not be flying anywhere over Iran, say to Oman? And is there any guarantee that it won’t make an emergency landing in Tehran too?

I would like to remind that in early July 2019, with the cooperation of your humble servant and former deputy head of the RA Civil Aviation Committee Arsen Poghosyan, a similar hijacking attempt involving a fake Kyrgyz registration of an Airbus-310 aircraft was prevented... There are indeed more questions, of course. But this level of answers would suffice for now.