[wolf78]

The gist is: There was a bidding process, the Eastern Europeans consortium won, and a few month later sold it to Iran (sans the Federal Eagle livery). A public relations SNAFU for sure.

One comedic aspect: The 20+ year old former GDR jet (it used to belong to the East German Interflug airline) was known for its terrible reliability problems, e.g. breaking down in Sao Paolo in May and forcing German president Wulff to fly Lufthansa. Probably still better than the 30-40 year old junk the Iranians are used to.



Old government aircraft with German president and wife



New government aircraft (Luftwaffe VIP transport)

[cartan]

An Interflug machine? Ugh! Oh well, maybe we’re lucky and it will have a little accident with Adolfinejad inside…

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Here’s the wiki entry on the company who purchase the plane, Mahan Air: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahan Air, a private company based out of Tehran.

Their fleet’s not too shabby, even including a 747-300. There were some safety issues back in 2007, but those seem to have been resolved.

Some dubious dealings, according to the US Treasury Department, and Americans are prohibited from flying with this particular carrier.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Sorry about that....here’s a better link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahan_Air

[Haiku Guy]

It is ridiculous that democratic countries maintain luxurious private jets for traveling dignitaries. It is offensive that somebody digging ditches is paying taxes to support such profligate waste. The mission could be accomplished at 1% of the cost through downsizing and charter operations.

[ken5050]

Germans getting redy for when they rule Europe...The Brits and the Frogs don’t have planes for their heads of state..they just charter one from British Airways or Air France..

[GodfearingTexan]

It seems to me that recently the Iranian govt refused the German Chancellor’s plane permission to fly through Iranian airspace. Or something like that? And now they’re buying the plane.