Mar 23, 2014

The Iranian mock-up of a US aircraft carrier is for the production of a movie about the 1988 downing of an Iranian airliner by the US Navy, according to Iranian media.

Iranian-owned Al-Alam News Network reported that the mock-up is being built for a film titled “Airbus,” about the July 3, 1988, downing of civilian passenger plane Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes. The plane, which according to the American crew was mistaken for a F-14 Tomcat fighter, was shot down in Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf and killed all 290 people on board.

News of the joint Iranian-Canadian production was first announced in April 2013. According to Iranian website Cinemanegar, it is being co-directed by Nader Talebzadeh and Paxton Winters and will star both Iranian and American actors, most prominently Sean Ali Stone, the son of American filmmaker Oliver Stone.

According The New York Times, the mock-up, which satellite photos revealed also has mock aircraft on deck, is about two-thirds the size of the Navy’s Nimitz-class carrier and according to experts is “not a functioning aircraft carrier.”

The Al-Alam article did not specify if in the movie the Nimitz aircraft carrier was meant to take the place of the USS Vincennes, which is a guided missile class cruiser not an aircraft carrier.