FAA ORDERS HALT TO FLIGHTS ABOVE IRAN.

Byline: Eric Schmitt The New York Times

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an emergency order barring flights by U.S. airlines over Iran because, it said, the Iranian military installed antiaircraft missiles on the Iranian-Turkish border this month.

But other government officials immediately questioned how long the missile site had been in place and why the aviation agency announced the restrictions now.

``There's always been a surface-to-air missile site there, so I don't know why the FAA chose this time to issue the notice,'' said a Clinton administration official familiar with Iran.

Before the order, United Airlines had flown a 206-passenger Boeing 767 jet over Iran on its twice-daily London-New Delhi flights. United opened the popular route in December. Two U.S. cargo carriers also fly over Iran.

Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., who heads the House International Relations Committee, wrote the FAA in July to express concern that the agency was permitting U.S. airliners to fly over Iran, even though the country has long been on the State Department's list of countries supporting terrorism.

Officials from the agency and United Airlines played down Gilman's concerns. ``We have no problems with Iran,'' a United spokesman said earlier this year. ``They have a good air-traffic control system and the controllers speak excellent English.''

But Tuesday, the airline changed its tune when the FAA issued its urgent order after learning that Iran had established a U.S.-made Hawk missile battery seven miles southeast of Urmia airfield, near the Turkish border.

``Increased military presence and activity adjacent to civilian air traffic corridors have increased the potential threat to civil aircraft overflying the area,'' David Hinson, the aviation agency's administrator, wrote in a nine-page memorandum issued Tuesday.