SEBRING - No one knew what to make of it when a small propeller airplane stenciled with the words ``Iraqi Air Force'' made an emergency landing on a road near this rural Florida community.

Local sheriff's deputies surrounded the aircraft and stopped journalists from photographing it. The plane's markings were covered.

It turns out there was no need to panic _ it was only a training aircraft built for the Iraqi military being taken from the Tampa area to Miami for shipment, officials said Thursday.

 The Cessna C-172 had mechanical problems before landing on a rural road in Highlands County, just north of Lake Okeechobee, at about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. The pilot was unhurt.

The sheriff's office declined to comment about the plane's markings. But a reporter from the Lake Placid Journal newspaper said the gray plane had ``Iraqi Air Force'' stenciled on both sides in English.

The four-seat, single-engine plane was part of a $10.5 million contract awarded to Cessna Aircraft Co. of Wichita, Kan., for 18 aircraft for the Iraqi Air Force, U.S. Air Force spokesman Daryl Mayer said.

Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver said the plane flew from Miami, where a diesel engine had been installed, to an undisclosed location in the Tampa area, where it was painted. On the return flight to Miami, the aircraft had engine trouble and made the emergency landing.

The aircraft are shipped from Miami to Iraq aboard Air Force transport planes, Oliver said.

The FAA said it is still investigating.

Swanny Note: Do we have un authorized flights with planes with different markings on them? Do we have other countrys military flying over our country? Why is SouthCom , Undisclosed location...right.... Dealing in paint jobs for Cessnas? 

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