United Suspends Route After Iran Downs U.S. Drone
Decision taken as tensions between Iran and the U.S. continue to escalate.
(Bloomberg) -- United Airlines has suspended its service between Newark and Mumbai, a route that regularly flies through Iranian airspace, after Iran shot down a U.S. military drone and as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate.
“Given current events in Iran, United has conducted a thorough safety and security review of our India service through Iranian airspace and decided to suspend our service between New York/Newark and India (Mumbai) beginning this evening,” United said in an emailed statement.
The FAA issued a flight restriction for Iranian airspace, spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. Neither Delta Air Lines nor American Airlines currently fly through Iranian airspace, Reuters had earlier reported.
U.S. and Iranian officials have differing accounts of whether the high-altitude U.S. Navy drone was over international or Iranian waters when it was shot down. The downing comes after weeks of rising tensions, including attacks on cargo ships that the U.S. has also blamed on Iran.
Though an Iranian military officer was quoted by state-run media as saying the drone was shot down in order to send a “clear message,” President Donald Trump downplayed the incident. While Trump’s first public reaction was to say on Twitter that Iran “made a very big mistake,” later at the White House he said he found it “hard to believe it was intentional. It could have been somebody who was loose and stupid.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Wallbank in Singapore at dwallbank@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chua Baizhen at bchua14@bloomberg.net, Chelsea Mes
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