General Authority of Civil Aviation issues press release

Jeddah, August 11, SPA -- Two tires of the main right rear wheel
system of an Airbus 300 airplane affiliated to the Iranian Airlines
were blown out when taking off from King Abdulaziz International
Airport. The flight number was 1758 heading to Tehran, Iran at 11 pm
Saturday.

The incident forced the pilot to immediately cancel the taking off
and stop the airplane in a sub-runway at the airport.

The Information Spokesman of the General Authority of Civil Aviation
Abdulhamid bin Hammad Aba Al-Ura said that the pilot overused the
brakes to stop the plane which in turn resulted in a minor fire in
the right rear wheel system. The Fire and Rescue Unit at the airport
quickly controlled the fire after receiving a direct report from the
plane. The process of extinguishing the fire took two minutes.

In a press release today, the General Authority of Civil Aviation
said that the incident did not result in any casualties among the 286
passengers, including the plane's crew. All passengers were
transported to the terminal at the airport. The runway was not
damaged and therefore was opened. The flow of air traffic was smooth
after ensuring the safety of the runway. The response to the
situation took twelve minutes which is a record in accordance with
international standards.

--SPA