Iranian Airbus avoids F15 - injured passengers
 

I have no idea if this is true but there are reports.

Fighter Jet Forces Iranian Passenger Plane Over Syria to Divert to Beirut

https://www.onthewingsaviation.com/2...eligro-un.html

I have verified that the screenshot below is a genuine FR24 image and it shows a speed and altitude discrepancy at about 16:13.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f...51152#250431a3

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a0275844b8.png

Fighter Jet Forces Iranian Passenger Plane Over Syria to Divert to Beirut
 

Wasn't the flight (IRM1152) scheduled to land at Beirut anyway ?

BBC news reported the same event... not quite clear what actually happened though.

Now confirmed as USAF

A U.S. F-15 on a routine air mission in the vicinity of the CJTF-OIR At Tanf garrison in Syria conducted a standard visual inspection of a Mahan Air passenger airliner at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the airliner this evening.

US intercept of Iranian airliner
 

Odd that a "standard visual inspection" would result in these kinds of injuries.🤔

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Pax to hit ceiling = Negative G at some point = normally an evasive action .. must have been less than 1000m or a very nervous edgy reaction from a Mahan pilot ( almost all ext military ) spotting the F15 over a war zone ...
Puts again the question of flying civil pax over a conflict area ..

The F-15 probably caused a TCAS alert.

Airbus vs F15
 

Even if the Airbus had a TCAS alert, why the violent bunt? Was the pilot attempting to execute some poorly flown BFM?!

Interesting report on Indian media that the Mahan crew were in communication with the F-15 pilot and had asked the latter to maintain a safe distance, though it's not clear whether that was before or after the upset:

That F15 had first of all NO BUSINESS there, this needs to be investigated very seriously and those responsible for ordering and executing this “mission” held accountable.

Exactly. The F-15 had no business 'patrolling' Syrian airspace.

Facts or speculation? I read that it was a point to point contact and not a patrol. So how close were the points to each other? Might make a difference between "intercept" or "patrol"

@lomapaseo,

Exactly what official mandate does the USAF have to be in Syrian airspace?

Er - do they need one?
And from whom might one be obtained?

Be a bit realistic, the US and many others, including the UK has considerable intrest in observing that tragic conflict and ensuring it gets no worse. We're hardly likley to file flight-plans to do that, are we?

wondering

I believe they lease highly valuable real estate which is susceptible to attack from the air

Don't have all the facts, concerning and relating to this incident. So without relying on specific facts of the incident, I'm shocked, shocked at the indignation over USAF fighter aircraft operating in airspace of Syria. It is a conflict zone, after all. And let's see, it's July 2020 . . .

Is it not the case that a Turkish air force fighter shot down a Russian aircraft about four or five years ago, in this same conflict zone? And is it not also the case that USAF and Russian air co-ordinators have been applying "deconfliction" operational procedures for about the same length of time, if not longer? (Also I'm not relying on the fact of recent tensions between Iran and U.S. for rejecting indignant comments about the F-15 operating there, in this incident.)

So save the fake neutrality for some readers who might not actually see through it before you've even finished uttering.

This wouldn't be the first time that a TCAS alert was responded to excessively, however I doubt that a military jet flying over hostile territory would be using its transponder. It sounds like an excessive evasion maneuver, thankfully limited by the Airbus control laws.

https://www.flightglobal.com/excessi.../82412.article

My apologies. How dare anybody questioning how uncle Sam goes about his business.

I would have thought that the U.S. Military would have been more circumspect when dealing with Iranian commercial airliners having shot one down in the 1980s and killing all the passengers and crew including a number of children, all of whom were innocent civilians.

At any rate it appears that the encounter must have scared the crew of the civilian aircraft, and there were injuries. Fortunately minor, though there could well have been initial concerns for the elderly gentleman who got floored due to making a lavatory visit at an inopportune time, as it turned out.
How will this incident be treated now, in terms of investigating procedures?