Plane with 106 people crashes in Iran; 35 survive

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Nasser Karimi, Associated Press – Sun Jan 9, 4:28 pm ET
TEHRAN, Iran – An IranAir passenger jet carrying 106 people crashed as it was making an emergency landing Sunday in a snowstorm in the country's northwest and broke into several pieces, killing 71 of those on board, Iranian media reported. The others survived with light injuries.

The pilots of the Boeing-727, operated by Iran's national airline, attempted the emergency landing in the city of Orumiyeh after reporting a technical failure to the control tower, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported, quoting a deputy provincial governor, Ebrahim Fatholahi.

The nature of the technical failure was unclear. A spokesman for the Iranian civil aviation organization, Abbas Mosayebi, said only that the plane "faced an incident," state TV reported.

The network also said the aircraft disappeared from radar and went down in farmland after making a second attempt to land. There was no word on what might have caused the crash. The aircraft was headed from Tehran to Orumiyeh, capital of West Azerbaijan province, a distance of about 460 miles, or 700 kilometers.

State TV aired footage showing rescue workers and local farmers searching for survivors Sunday night in parts of the wrecked plane under snowfall and in the darkness.

Thirty-five people survived, including two crew members, said Javad Mahmoudi, another deputy governor for West Azerbaijan, speaking to State TV. He put the number of confirmed dead at 71.

Some of the passengers were only lightly wounded and able to walk off the plane and some had to be hospitalized, Mosayebi said.

Heavy snow complicated rescue efforts, said the head of the State Emergency Canter, Gholam Reza Masoumi, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. That report also said there was fog in the area.

The plane broke into several pieces, but there was no explosion or fire, said Mahmoud Mozaffar, head of the rescue department of Iran's Red Crescent Society, speaking on state TV.

Iran has a history of frequent air accidents blamed on its aging aircraft and poor maintenance. IranAir's fleet includes Boeing and Airbus aircraft, many of them bought before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which led to a cutoff in ties between the two nations.

Iranian airlines, including those run by the state, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say. U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall.

In July 2009 a Russian-made jetliner crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board.

In February 2003 a Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard.


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Iran to ban flights of Russian-built Tupolev jets
15 Jan 2011

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Iranian airlines have 17 Tupolevs in service

* Sanctions bar sales of U.S. aircraft to Iran


TEHRAN, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Iran will ban flights by all its Tupolev aircraft from February following a series of disasters involving Russian-built jets in the Islamic state, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.

Iranian airlines have been dogged by accidents in recent years, prompting calls for a revamp of the country's ageing air fleet which also includes many U.S.-built Boeings acquired before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Reza Nakhjavani, head of the Civil Aviation Organisation, ordered four Iranian airlines to stop flying Tupolev-154s from Feb. 20 due to past crashes and the expiry of airworthiness documents.

"Using Tupolev-154 planes is forbidden because of the recent air incidents and the expiry of the service date of this type of aircraft on February 19," Nakhjavani said in a letter.

Altogether 17 Tupolev-154s, owned by Iran Air Tour, Kish Air Eram and Taban airlines, are currently in service in Iran.

U.S. sanctions bar the sale of Boeing airliners to Iran and hinder the acquisition of other aircraft, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines or other components. Iran has turned to Russia and Ukraine for cheaper planes.

The last major air accident in Iran involving a Tupolev was in July 2009 when a Caspian Airlines aircraft bound for Armenia caught fire in mid-air and crashed into farmland near the city of Qazvin, killing all 168 people on board.

Iranian legislators have repeatedly called for tighter aircraft safety controls and an end to the use of planes from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

One of the country's worst air accidents happened in 2003 when an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.

In 2002, a Russian-built Yakovlev Yak-40 plane carrying 30 people, including the transport minister and seven MPs, crashed near the northern town of Sari killing all on board.

At least 77 people died on Jan. 9 when an ageing Iran Air Boeing 727 crashed while attempting to land in bad weather. (Writing by Mitra Amiri, Editing by David Stamp)