1. 1 Hijacked Iranian Civil Aircraft

2. 2 November 2004 07:00 CNN reports that an Iranian civil aircraft was hijacked “a short time ago” on an internal flight from Teheran to Tabriz. No further details.

3. 3 07:10 Iranian officials inform civil aviation authorities in Ukraine that the aircraft might possibly attempt to overfly Ukraine on its way to “Frankfurt.”

4. 4 07:15 The plane involved (Iranian Airlines Flight 602) calls in to the tower at Kiev International Airport. A hijacker takes over from the Flight Captain and demands landing permission for the aircraft as well as a “blanket overflight OK for the entire country.” He notes that he and his fellow hijackers have several large crates of fissionable material in the luggage compartment of the plane. Should it crash, he shouts “it will pollute half of the country.”

5. 5 07:30 Flight 602 calls the tower at Chisinau airport and makes the same demands and same threats

6. 6 07:50 Flight 602 calls the tower at Minsk and repeats its threatening message

7. 7 08:00 Iranian officials contact the 3 respective governments, and request that they ignore the hijacker’s demands and force the plane to return to Iran. They explain that the plane is an AirBus 320 with 163 passengers and possibly with inadequate fuel to reach as far as Minsk. They also note that there is no dangerous material aboard.

8. 8 08:15 German officials send a circular message to all the countries possibly involved in dealing with the hijacking that they have “unconfirmed reports” of the theft of fissionable material from a storage site in Iran within the past 10 days. The “3 governments” agree to take a common stand. You are expected to provide an action plan and options within 30 minutes for a teleconference to take place at 09:00 with the decision-makers of the “3.”