Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hero pilot forced into retirement



The associated Press reported the following today:

"TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian pilot who became a national hero last year after he safely brought down a passenger plane with broken landing gear says that the country's flag carrier airline has forcibly retired him for wearing its uniform during his private campaign against Western sanctions.
Captain Hooshang Shahbazi says sanctions imposed over the country's controversial nuclear program prevent Tehran from updating its decades-old American and European aircraft, putting lives in danger.
But he said Thursday that Iran Air told him not to wear the uniform when he campaigns to lift sanctions. After he did so in a conference abroad earlier this year they retired him — even thought at age 55 he is still 10 years short of the official age.
Calls to the state-owned airline were not immediately returned."

Commentary:
You would think that a hero pilot protesting the sanctions is a good thing for the Islamic republic, but it seems that no one in Iran is free to do anything anymore unless every detail of their actions fits with the dictatorship's script. Total control is the apparent goal, no matter the consequences.


Photo credit: www.bhl.il, www.storyful.com

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If true,then they are idiots!

Mark Pyruz said...

Well, every commercial pilot is trained at length to perform a landing with a malfunctioned nose wheel.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were additional reasons for this pilot being sacked.

But I would agree that as a result of sanctions, bein' an Iranian pilot sure ain't easy.

Anonymous said...

They want to outlaw the iranian culture; that is their fascistic endgame ...

Anonymous said...

Maybe he done the wrong thing and instead should have rammed the airplane into a skyscraper and then the regime would have made him a honorable martyr.