Iran Airbus

24 JETS January/February 2015

In fifteen years Iran Air succeeded in becoming the largestairline of the Middle East, but not without incident andcontroversy. BabakTaghvaee recounts the challenges facedby Iran Airs stalwart fleet of Airbus A300s

Iranian Airbus

IranAir was officially formed on February24, 1962 by the merger betweenPersianAir Services and United IranianAirways and began with 374 employeesand a small fleet of six DC-3s and threeVickersViscounts.The airline embarkedon a challenging task to gain itself a goodinternational reputation by introducing aconvenient schedule on an all-jet fleet, withexcellent cabin service, supported by one ofthe best safety records in the world.With constant and speedy progress, not

only did the company meet all of its goals inless than a decade, it was also selected byIATA in the late 1970s as the fastest growingairline in the world.This significant success can be attributed

to formidable management, backed by theIranian government.

In 1977, Iran Air management and expertsnegotiated with Boeing and Airbus regardingthe acquisition of widebody airliners. Boeing747s were procured for international flights,but Iran Air managers needed to find asolution for domestic routes too and forthis they looked towards Airbus.In October 1977,Airbus president Bernard

Lathiere visitedTehran to negotiate Iran Airspurchase of the Airbus A300B2K. Followingthe agreement, two Airbus A300B2Ks wereprepared for a long-term leasing arrangement,with their deliveries to Iran Air scheduledfor March 1978.The airlines eventualrequirement was for ten to twelve A300s.The A300B2K was the hot-and-high

version of AirbusA300, combining the lighterstructure of the B2 with the wing-root Krugerflap of the B4 version. It was specifically

Iran Air was formed in 1962 after a mergerbetween Persian Air Services and UnitedIranian Airways.The founding fleet includedsix DC-3s and three Vickers Viscounts includingEP-AHA Neal Carlton

Iran Air ordered Boeing 747-100s forinternational flights, but opted for the AirbusA300 for domestic routes Neal Carlton

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Today just one A300B2 variant is operational with Iran Air. Registered EP-IBS itwas the second A300 delivered to the airline by Airbus and has had an eventfulcareer. On August 28, 1984 it was hijacked while en-route from Shiraz toTehran

and it headed to Iraq where the passengers were freed and the hijackersclaimed asylum. It is expected to remain in service until 2016

All via BabakTaghvaee unless stated

IRAN AIRA300s

developed for South African Airways.Finally, Iran Air decided to order ten

A300B2Ks in November 1977, and theirdeliveries were expected in 1978-80.The two leased A300B2Ks F-ODHY

(c/n: 49) and F-ODHZ (c/n: 51) weredelivered on March 7 and 16, 1978respectively and were quickly introducedonto domestic and even internationalroutes.Two months later, Iran Air selected52,000lb/thrust CF6-50C2 turbofan enginesfor its future A300B2Ks; the new variant ofthis General Electric engine had made itsfirst flight beneath an A300 on May 10, 1978.

RevolutionThe riots of 1979, later termed the IslamicRevolution, changed the government ofTehran.One of the primary goals of the Mullahs,

who now had the power, was purging allsigns of the Pahlavi government and theIranian aviation industry, a great symbol ofIrans achievement in the Golden Pahlavi era,was a prime target.Iran Airs authorities were dismissed

or even imprisoned. New authorities

accused the former Iran Air managers ofco-operating with theWest, citing the factthat they bought American-made aircraft asan act of Imperialism!Contracts for more two Boeing 747-

186Bs were cancelled and a recentlydelivered Boeing 747-186B (EP-IAM) and

a Boeing 747SP86B (EP-IAD) were put upfor sale.Ayatollah Khomeini, the head of theMullahs, believed that Iranian people couldtravel with pack animals and there was noneed for modern aircraft.Three months before the end of the

A300B2K lease, they were returned back to

Airbus and the order for ten A300B2Ks wasreduced to six by the new revolutionaryauthorities at Iran Air.The first of these A300B2K-203s was

delivered on March 17, 1980 and wasregistered EP-IBR. It was followed by thedelivery of EP-IBS on April 16. In the same

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AIRLINE HISTORY

year Airbus sold the previously leased aircraftto Eastern Airlines for $28 million apiece.On April 30, the third and fourth

A300B2Ks were delivered to Iran Air andregistered EP-IBT and EP-IBU respectively.The final two machines were delivered onDecember 12, 1982 and January 31, 1983becoming EP-IBV and EP-IBZ.

Terrorist hijackingsThe MKO (Peoples MojahedinOrganisation) Islamic-Marxist terrorist grouphad a very important role in the 1979Islamic Revolution.This group had becomefamous amongst religious and Marxist youngrevolutionary people in Iran because ofits assassination of American citizens andgovernmental authorities in Iran during the1970s.After the Islamic regime had gainedpower the MKOs political influence andactivity was restricted by the Mullahs in1980. However, the group continued itsterroristic activities and began a bloody waragainst the new regime.MKO terrorists were known to follow

the tactics of Palestinian terrorists whichincluded suicide bombing and hijacking

aircraft. Between July 6, 1983 and January 26,1990, MKO terrorists attempted to hijack15 Iran Air passenger aircraft and they weresuccessful during more than half of theirattempts.Three such incidents occurred onA300B2Ks en-route during domestic routes.On June 26, 1984 MKO hijackers diverted

Iran Air Boeing 727-286C EP-IRP fromits ShirazTehran route towards Saddam

International in Baghdad, and on August 7 ofthe same year terrorists hijacked an AirbusA300B2-203 en route fromTehranShiraz.Two hijackers, one armed with a knife and theother with a fake bomb commandeered theaircraft while it was carrying 304 passengersand eleven crew members and redirected ittowards Bahrain.They refuelled there and alsoat Cairo before landing in Rome.Thwarted byFrench officials, the hijackers were arrested inItaly and then sentenced for air piracy.On August 28, the MKO took control

of EP-IBS en-route from ShirazTehran.

Airbus A300B4-605R EP-IBA first flew in December 1993 as F-WWAL andwas delivered to Iran Air a year later on December 27, 1994. It is seenhere visiting Amsterdam on July 3, 2004. It was last noted inTehran, but inall probability will never fly again Caz Caswell

A300B2-203 EP-IBV first flew in March 1982 as F-WZMD and was built specifically for Iran Air. Itjoined the airline two months later as the penultimate A300 from its initial order.The airframe wasplagued with problems in latter years and on September 14, 2007 it had to perform an emergencylanding due to a flaps failure.On January 20, 2008 its yaw dampers deactivated due to a technicalproblem and on August 9 the same year the aircrafts right landing gear tyres exploded. EP-IBV wasretired from service on April 9, 2014

EP-IBG began life asTC-OBB with Onur Air and became EP-MDA whenin service with Iran AirTours. In 2009 it was re-registered as EP-IBG andremains in service with Iran Air providing regional flights betweenTehranand Najaf

The hijackers, a young man and a womanclaiming to have explosives, diverted theaircraft towards Kuwait, but Kuwaiti officialsdidnt permit them to land and thereforethey diverted the aircraft towards amilitary airport located in the south of Iraq.The hijackers claimed asylum and all 195passengers and eleven crew members werelater returned to Iran.

After these incidents, the IslamicRevolutionary Guard of Corps (IRGC)established the Aircraft Protection Corps(similar to US Air Marshals) for guardingpassenger aircraft against hijacking.When on September 12, 1984 four MKO

members attempted to take control ofanother Airbus A300B2K on theTehranShirazroute, IRGC security guard prevented thehijack and two of the terrorists were wounded.

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Below: In February 2005 Iran Air acquiredA300B4-605Rs SX-BEK and SX-BEL fromOlympic Airlines and the two aircraft quicklybecame EP-IBC and EP-IBD.The former is seenhere at Frankfurt in August 2005 Caz Caswell

Iran Air acquired Airbus A300B4-204sTC-FLK andTC-FLL from Fly Air ofTurkey in 2007.The IranianCivil Aviation Organisation initially refused to issue civil registrations to the aircraft but after muchlegal wranging the aircraft became EP-IBI and EP-IBJ - the latter seen here landing at MehrabadInternational Airpoirt after a flight fromTabriz in December 2011

The aircraft made an emergency landing atIsfahan and all of the hijackers were arrested.On November 10, 1986 two members

of MKO received an order to hijack anotherA300B2K and route it towards Iraq.Twowell-trained terrorists returned to Iran andhijacked another Airbus A300B2K en-routefromTehranTabriz. However, both attemptswere thwarted by security officers and theaircraft returned toTehran.

IranAir Flight 655On July 3, 1988 the US Navy Cruiser USSVincennes shot down an Iran Air Airbus300B2-203, killing all 274 passengers and16 crewmembers.This catastrophic incidentcaused theTehran regime, headed byKhomeini, to accept a ceasefire and UNResolution 598 to end the Iran/IraqWar.The aircraft (EP-IBU) had departed Bandar

Abbas airport at 10.17am local time headingtowards Dubai International.While climbingtwo RIM-66A Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs)were fired towards the airliner hitting its rightwing and vertical stabiliser.The US Navy cruisers personnel and

commander later claimed that they hadmistakenly identified the Airbus as a hostileIranian Air Force F-14Tomcat.They also claimedto have issued seven challenges on the militaryair distress frequency 283 MHz, addressed toIranian Aircraft,Iranian fighter or IranianF-14.These messages were followed by threechallenges on the International Air Defence

Iran Air Cargo A300B4-203 Freighter EP-ICE on approach to land.This aircraft was built in 1981 for Kuzu AirasTC-KZT and joined Iran Air in May 2008. Recently overhauled and repainted into standard Iran Air colours,the on-going effect of sanctions caused its grounding and the removal of its engines for use in other aircraft.However, it returned to the skies on October 6, 2014 following a relaxing of sanctions and new engine deliveries

radio frequency, but the crew of the civilianEP-IBU were not able to hear them.In 1996,America and Iran reached an

agreement over Iran Air Flight 655 at theInternational Court of Justice.The USpaid $61.8 million in compensation to thefamilies of the Iranian victims. However,America has never admitted responsibility.

Maintenance Supportunder the sanctionsBefore the Islamic revolution of 1979, IranAir had a significant maintenance capability,making periodical inspections and checkson all aircraft except overhauls, which wereusually done by LufthansaTechnic.This facility was reduced following several

political purges, the retirement of highlyskilled technicians and also the dismissal ofGerman and American technicians.The A300 fleet C checks were then

conducted out at aircraft MaintenanceRepair & Overhaul (MRO) centres such asthe GAMCO Centre in Abu-Dhabi or othercentres inTurkey and Europe. In the late1990s Iran Airs technical unit established itsthird maintenance hangar in-order to do allA and B checks on the airlines A300s onsite inTehran.On March 8, 2002 the Fajr-Ashian Aircraft

MRO Centre was officially establishedwith help and support provided by EADSSogerma Services in France as well asMahan Air and the Iranian Ministry ofDefence. In 2003 the company conductedits first domestic overhaul of an A300 andsoon gave Iran Air the ability to do A, B, Cand S checks on its A300s.

Risky businessIn the 2000s, Iran Air authorities werestruggling with sanctions which caused thefull suspension and then cancellation of IranAir orders for five A330 aircraft in 2003 as



AIRLINE HISTORY

well as an initial embargo on the airlinesattempt to buy two second-hand A300sfrom Olympic Airlines.However, two years later in February

2005, Iran Air was successful in acquiringA300B4-605Rs SX-BEK and SX-BEL fromOlympic and the two aircraft quicklybecame EP-IBC and EP-IBD.They wereintroduced onto European routes in Marchand April 2005 to fill the gap left by theex-Turkish Airlines Airbus A300-203s whichhad been grounded due to the inability to

find spare parts for their engines.In 2007, Fly Air of Turkey, which was near

bankruptcy, put its small fleet of aircraft upfor sale.Authorities of the ailing airline founda solution to pay their debts to the bankand offered Airbus A300B4-203sTC-FLKandTC-FLL to Iran Air. Representativeswent toTurkey to checkTC-FLK and itsdocuments.At that time the aircraft wasequipped with two CF6-50C2R turbofanengines, which were a year overdue for anoverhaul.TC-FLL was in a similar condition.Both aircraft were bought and relocated toIran in September 2007.

After clearance of both aircraft byMehrabad Intl Airports Customs, they wentto the Iran Air maintenance hangar wheretechnicians found two worn-out engineshad allegedly replaced the original enginespreviously fitted toTC-FLK!The Iranian CivilAviation Organisation (ICAO) refused toissue Iranian civil registrations to the ex-Fly Airaircraft and a few days later Iran Air apparentlyrealised that the aircraft couldnt even beflown because they were bank foreclosuresand their relocation to Iran was illegal.

For several months Iran Air authoritiesand Fly Airs creditors negotiated, andeventually Iran Air paid a part of Fly Airsdebts and both aircraft entered Iran Airservice, registered as EP-IBI and EP-IBJ.The flight crew detected several technical

problems during EP-IBJs first test flight onDecember 22, 2008 which took a month tosolve. Finally, both EP-IBI and EP-IBJ enteredservice in January 2009.In 2007, two other Airbus A300B4-203s

were procured for Iran AirTours. FormerlyTC-OBB andTC-OBC with Onur Air thesebecame EP-MDA and EP-MDB in Iran.These

aircraft were handed over to Iran Air in April2009 and in August of that year EP-MDAwas re-registered as EP-IBG. EP-MDB wasre-registered as EP-IBH two months later.

Unsafe?Iran Airs A300 fleet was always faced withunexpected accidents and incidents. OnFebruary 2, 2000 the airline lost EP-IBRwhen it collided with an Iranian Air ForceC-130E Hercules (5-8504) while beingtowed from the Iran Air yard towards thedomestic ramp of Mehrabad InternationalAirport.According to the crash report, theC-130s No 3 engine had been throttledback during a training sortie and theinstructor decided to abort the take-off.The pilot lost control causing the Herculesto veer off the runway and collide withEP-IBR. Both aircraft exploded and eightcrew members on the C-130 were killed.The age of the Iran Air A300B2K fleet

was also having an adverse effect on theirsafety.Air France and LufthansaTechnic hadresponsibility for the fleets CF6-80CR andCF6-50C2 engines, but only three or fourengines were being sent to Germany orFrance for overhaul each year. In 2004, due

The final A300B2 to join Iran Air was EP-IBZ, which arrived on January31, 1983. In October 2013 it was also the first member of the A300B2fleet to be retired and was cannibalized for parts at Mehrabad.Theaeroplane was named Persian Gulf in Iran Air service

Fourteen A300s have been owned by Iran Air and two additionalexamples leased from Airbus. Today just seven remain operational

In 2007 Iran AirTours acquiredTC-OBC from Onur Air and the aircraftbecame EP-MDB (illustrated). It was handed over to Iran Air in April 2009and in October of that year EP-MDB was re-registered as EP-IBH

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The A300B2K was the hot-and-high version ofAirbusA300, combining the lighter structure ofthe B2 with the wing-root Kruger flap of the B4version. It was specifically developed for SouthAfrican Airways

Flying domestic routes in and out ofTehran the A300 fleet was frequently seen passing the AlborzMountain range. EP-IBI is the second of twoA300B4s obtained from Fly Air and is now used for flightsfromTehran to Mashhad, Zahedan and Bushehr as well as the Mashhad-Ahwaz route.During one suchflight, on October 1, 2014, the aeroplanes arrival was delayed by a few minutes leading to internetrumours that it had crashed! Iran Air expects to keep the aeroplane in active service until 2016

Below:As of 2014, Iran Air had just sevenoperational A300s in its fleet, includingA300B4-203 IP-ICF, which is used by Iran AirCargo. It was previously operated by Kuzu AirasTC-KCU and was acquired in May 2008.Thispicture, taken in 2008, shows the aeroplane inits old colour scheme which had been designedand applied in Germany.This scheme wasreplaced with standard Iran Air livery during itslast overhaul in 2011

to US pressure, these companies refused tooverhaul Iran Air engines and the number ofoperational A300s was subsequently reduced.US sanctions also meant using non-

standard and expired spare parts on theCF6 engines, leading to several enginefailures and subsequent emergency landingsduring A300 flights in the years after 2004.In 2007, Iran Airs A300 fleet suffered at

least one technical failure per month.Totake just one example, on September 14,2007, EP-IBV had to perform an emergencylanding only seconds after its take-off fromZahedan airport due to failure in theaircrafts right wing flaps. Several weeks lateron January 20, 2008 whilst the aircraft wasen-routeTehran-Dubai, its yaw dampersdeactivated due to a technical problem andits crew performed an emergency landingat Shiraz International Airport.The sameyear, on August 9, 2008, when EP-IBV wastaking off from Jeddah International Airportin Saudi Arabia, a foreign object caused theaircrafts right landing gear tyres to explode.The pilot aborted the take-off and due toheavy braking the aircrafts landing gearburned out and it was grounded for severaldays in Jeddah.The list of incidents continued until 2012,

when aircraft EP-IBS and EP-IBV sufferedtyre issues and engine failure, respectively.

RetirementDue to US sanctions and the Anti-Americanpolitics of the Mullahs regime, Iran Airwas faced with massive bankruptcy andeconomic loss and only governmentalsubsidies kept the airline alive.Airline managers had been (ineffectually)

selected for their loyalty to the Islamicregime rather than their aviation knowledgeand unlike Mahan Air, Iran Air was unableto circle US sanctions to buy new aircraft.

Its ageing fleet of A300s was suffering fromboth a lack of overhaul and a deficit of spareparts, causing many to be grounded.The official retirement of the airline

A300B2 fleet began in October 2013, whenEP-IBZ was withdrawn from service. EP-IBV,the airlines ill-fated controversial A300B2Kwas retired from service on April 9, 2014.The aircraft had received its last C Check atthe Fajr Ashian MRO centre in 2009.By late 2013, another A300B2K, EP-IBT, had

been cannibalised for its parts. EP-IBT hadbeen overhauled for the last time in 2008and had been returned to Iran Air in July2009.This leaves just one A300B2 (EP-IBS)operational with Iran Air and this aircraft isexpected to remain in service until 2016.As of 2014, Iran Air had just seven

operational A300s in its fleet. EP-ICF andEP-IBG are both A300B4-203 variants withthe former used by Iran Air Cargo and thelatter to provide regional flights betweenTehranNajaf. EP-IBS is the sole remainingB2 variant; EP-IBI and EP-IBJ (the two ex-FlyAir A300B4s) are mainly used for flyingtheTehran-Mashhad,Tehran-Zahedan andTehran-Bushehr routes whereas A300B4-605Rs EP-IBB and EP-IBD generally fly tothe airlines European destinations.


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Iran Airbus