to Varna and demanded that the airplane is diverted to Vienna. The Bulgarian authorities ordered the pilots to fly to Varna while assuring the hijackers that their demands are met and they were en route to the Austrian capital. In the meantime, a Yakovlev Yak-40 business jet with an assault group of the SOMP takes off from Sofia and overtakes the An-24 landing at the final destination ahead of it. As the flight takes place at night the local police authorities shut down the electricity in the city during the approach of the hijacked airplane to make it harder for the terrorists on board to spot the Black Sea - a highly observable indicator that this was not Vienna. In the subsequent assault, the hijackers were apprehended and the hostages were freed unharmed. On October 3, 1986, the SOMP joins the few counter-terrorism units worldwide that have successfully executed operations abroad. A group of 86 Iranians, including women and children (still more than half of them are well-built men of military age), flee the general mobilization for the Iran–Iraq War. They first arrive in Turkey, where they contract a local travel agency to organize a vacation to East Berlin, chartering a Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 from Burgas Airport. They plan to flee to West Berlin, seeking political asylum. When they arrive at Berlin Schönefeld Airport however their plan is thwarted as the West Berlin authorities refuse to admit them on their sole without proper visas. The East German border control officials at the airport collect their passports and refuse to let them off the airplane to contain a rising international scandal. The frustrated passengers take the pilots and the air hostesses of the flight and cabin crew hostages and demand that the airplane is refueled and diverted to Sweden. The Bulgarian government is informed and on the following morning the commander of SOMP Lt-col. Vasil Velkov flies off to Berlin together with the ready assault group of Captain Dimitar Stefanov, consisting of 5 squads of 3 master sergeants each for a total of 17 people. To deceive the hijackers the East German authorities inform them that the Swedish government has accepted the flight, but the Bulgarian Tupolev Tu-154 is unable to fulfill it so they need to board another airplane. The Bulgarian special forces devise a plan in which they hide in the Ikarus bus sent under that pretext