Around 100 Iranian sailors fly out of Kochi airport

Around 100 sailors from the Iranian naval vessel IRIS Lavan, which has been docked at Kochi port since March 4, is learnt to have flown out of Kochi airport by a chartered flight on Friday (March 13, 2026) around 7 p.m.

Reportedly, there were another 33-odd Iranian nationals on the flight that arrived from Colombo. Some reports suggested that the flight was headed to Armenia, though it could not be independently verified.

A section of the crew is understood to have stayed back on the vessel. Airport and naval authorities declined to divulge details of the movement, citing security considerations. Sources confirmed that there was such a movement through the airport while being tight-lipped about other details.

The development comes amid reports that India would facilitate the repatriation of crew members of the vessel, which had suffered a technical snag in the Indian Ocean. IRIS Lavan is a Hengam-class landing ship commissioned in the 1980s. Following a request from Iran, India accorded approval for its urgent docking on March 1, with the vessel arriving in Kochi three days later.

Since then, the crew had been accommodated at naval facilities in the city. The presence of an Iranian warship in Kochi, against the backdrop of Tehran’s ongoing conflict with the United States and Israel, has stirred considerable public curiosity. Crowds, including foreign tourists, thronged the Mattancherry wharf to catch a glimpse of the vessel, with many photographing the ship across the waters.

News channels deployed crews at the boat jetty to live-stream the development. However, Kochi city police intervened on security grounds, arresting two television crew members along with their boat driver for approaching the vessel. The police subsequently issued an advisory directing media houses to remove images and videos of the vessel.