(Read the full article on arka.am)

Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) said it has terminated the air operator certificate granted earlier to Fly Armenia Airways, ARKA reported.

The CAC said in a Facebook post that the decision stemmed from an investigation into the mysterious missing of the company’s leased Boeing 737-300 aircraft last February 20. It also said that Fly Armenia Airways currently does not have any aircraft ready for operation.

CAC said the investigation revealed a string of deficiencies threatening the safety of the flights. The results of the Committee’s investigation will be presented to the National Security Service.

The Boeing 737-300 leased by Fly Armenia Airways reportedly went missing after undergoing repairs in Estonia’s capital Tallinn and was due to fly to Ukraine for further maintenance, but flew instead to Verna, Bulgaria before making an unauthorized landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.

Fly Armenia immediately informed the Armenian CAA and the law enforcement agencies of the country as well as the European Agency for Flight Safety (Eurocontrol) about the incident, which was thought to be a hijack.

Later, the CAC said there were no passengers aboard the aircraft and the pilots were foreign citizens. Some time later Armenian and Iranian officials reached an agreement on the plane’s return to Armenia, which happened in late April. The National Security Service has initiated a criminal case under the article “airplane hijacking.”