The Boeing 737 MAX took off from Shiraz Airport in southern Iran on Friday night and landed in Stockholm Arlanda early Saturday after a nearly-six hour flight, according to public data from flightradar24.com.
Back on December 14th, the B737 registered as LN-BKE, departed from Dubai bound for Oslo. Following an engine failure, the aircraft was forced to divert to Shiraz.
The 186 passengers and six crew that were onboard on Dec. 14 were able to fly out of Shiraz the next day.
It is likely that the airline managed to fly a new engine into Iran after getting US approval. However, Norwegian Air has not commented and Iran Chamber Newsroom can not confirm whether the whole engine was replaced or it was overhauled.
An engine replacement would just be shipped to the stranded aircraft’s location, however, in this incident, unilateral US sanctions on Iran blocked the repair process.
Additionally, any products that contain 10% or more of parts which originate in the United States require a permit to export to Iran.
However, the US government shutdown stalled Norwegian Air’s negotiations with American officials.
Under the same regulation, Boeing cancelled sale of up to 30 commercial airplanes of the same model, B737 MAX, to Iran under a deal that was signed after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and marred following the US unilateral walkout.
After two months in Iran, it’s a big relief to finally get the aircraft back home,” airline spokeswoman Astrid Mannion-Gibson was cited by Reuters as saying.