An U.S. passenger plane made an emergency landing Sunday in Teheran due to technical problems, the first time in decades a U.S. aircraft has landed on Iranian soil, dpa reported. The DC-10 plane, belonging to Northwest Airlines, was en route from Mumbai (Bombay) to Amsterdam when the pilot noticed a technical defect and asked Teheran for emergency landing permission, dpa reported. After landing, all 255 passengers were transferred to the terminal hall of the Mehrabad airport. Once the faults were fixed, the plane continued its flight to Amsterdam where it landed safely, airline spokesperson Jeff Smith said in Minnesota. The aircraft spent six and a half hours on the ground in the Iranian capital, the delay caused in part by difficulties in refuelling. "It took a while before we could find somewhere in Teheran to buy fuel," Smith said. The U.S. suspended air links to Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Teheran. --SP 2218 Local Time 1918 GMT
