(NBC NEWS) A charter flight was grounded in Iran with as many as 100 Americans on board Friday due to a "bureaucratic issue," according to the U.S. State Department.
The Boeing 737, which routinely flies contractors from Afghanistan to Dubai, was delayed by three hours, but the airline did not refile a flight plan with Iranian authorities, according to a U.S. official.
Iranian ground control officers ordered the plane to land at the airport in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, or else fighter jets would have been scrambled to force the plane down, the official said. The pilot voluntarily landed the plane.