An Iranian airline has been blamed for helping to contribute to the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) across the Middle East.
The information was revealed in an investigation by the BBC on Mahan Airlines for its violation of several state bans.
As part of its investigation, BBC Arabic analysed flight tracking data and spoke to sources within the airline to explain how the company has been challenging government bans between late January and the end of March, by operating flights to and from Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Iran suspended all flights to and from China on January 31, after which several countries prevented flights from Iran in February and March, after they became the epicenter of the epidemic in the Middle East.
Despite all this, the airline continued its flights, which led to criticism regarding the risks the health of passengers and air crews.
The BBC found that members of crew were silenced after threatening to refer them to the judiciary, when they expressed their concerns about “spreading the virus to their loved ones and their country.”
In late February, well-informed sources within Mahan stated that symptoms of the virus had started to appear in more than 50 of its crew members who turned to social media to complain that they were not given special equipment or protective clothing.
On February 27, airline workers spoke for the first time and in an article published by the 'East Calendar' newspaper, airline workers expressed concern that they would not be allowed unilateral isolation after their return from China and that they were forced to continue working.
The private sector airline company has 55 aircraft, annually transports nearly five million passengers to 66 destinations worldwide and has links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is a branch of the Iranian armed forces.
By using flight data and talking to sources in Lebanon and Iraq, BBC Arabic was able to confirm that the first cases of Covid-19 in these two countries were for travellers on Mahan flights.
Despite these two incidents, Mahan Airlines continued its flights and only on February 20, did the Iraqi government suspended aircraft flights to and from Iran.
Through its investigation, BBC was able to reveal that at least 15 more flights functioned after the ban was issued, many of which transported visitors from Iran to the holy Iraqi cities with the approval of the Iraqi government.
The Iraqi government stated to the BBC that the flights that ran were return flights that had been approved by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, that flights from Iraq to Iran would continue, but travellers from Iran were prevented from entering Iraq.
The BBC also learned that Mahan Airlines, at the height of the spread of Covid-19 in China, continued its flights between Iran and the four major Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
The airline published photos on Chinese social media showing that six of its flights between late January and April 20, were used for relief, and identified four of them used to evacuate Iranian citizens from China.
The company also continued to play a major role in transporting travellers from Iran to other countries during the peak of the virus’s spread there.
On April 18, 1,300 Mahan Airlines workers signed an open letter accusing the airline of mismanaging the crisis.
The message, published in Avia News, also mentioned that workers ’claims for personal protective equipment recommended by the International Air Transport Association were repeatedly neglected, and that they were blamed for transmitting the virus.
A copy of a confidentiality commitment agreement distributed to Mahan Aviation employees, threatening them with a criminal trial if they speak out their concerns, has been obtained by the BBC and the airline has rejected BBC’s request for comment.
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