Plane crash leaves 17 dead, 19 injured in northern Iran

[Lockheed F-16]

TEHRAN: An Iranian passenger plane skidded off the runway during landing in northeast Iran and crashed, leaving its front a tangled mass of wreckage and killing 17 people, the state news agency said.

Footage from Iran’s Press TV showed the plane sitting at an angle, its tail awkwardly on the ground and the mangled front end pointing upward. The rest of the craft appeared largely intact.

The IRNA news agency reported that its tires caught fire on landing and it skidded into a wall, though no wall was visible in the footage.

The Russian-made Ilyushin plane from the privately owned Aria Arilines was carrying 153 passengers and flew from the capital Tehran to the north-eastern city of Mashhad, 600 miles away.

Local official Ghahrman Rashid told the state news agency that another 19 people were injured in the crash and that all survivors had been evacuated from the scene.

On July 15, an Iranian passenger plane crashed soon after take off, killing 168 people aboard.

It was the latest in a string of deadly crashes in recent years that have highlighted Iran’s difficulties in maintaining its aging fleet of planes.

Iranian airlines, including state-run ones, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say.

US 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.

Iran’s worst crash came in February 2003 and also involved a Russian-made Ilyushin, which ploughed into the mountains of south-eastern Iran, killing 302 aboard – mostly members of the elite Revolutionary Guard. —AP

 

[Jako]

RIP to the dead....

 

[Lockheed F-16]

Hmmm, another Iranian crash

 

[Mig-29]

I think it is high time they they retire those tupolevs and lease some modern wide bodied jets.

 

[Lockheed F-16]

I think it is high time they they retire those tupolevs and lease some modern wide bodied jets.

Yes man, great idea. Lease some Boeing and Airbus aircraft with embargo and thus without spare parts I am curious how loong they'll fly

 

[AirforcePilot]

Media reports state this pilot landed the aircraft at the middle of the runway at high speed, blowing out the front tire and collapsing the front gear and veered off the runway into a wall.

 

[AirforcePilot]

Yes man, great idea. Lease some Boeing and Airbus aircraft with embargo and thus without spare parts I am curious how loong they'll fly

I think our country should consider ending the embargo and let Iran lease or purchase commercial aircraft. The original embargo was for military aircraft and parts. I have no idea why there is an embargo on commercial jetliners or parts. I know I wouldn't be comfortable flying on one of those obsolete Russian planes...

 

[Renegade]

I think our country should consider ending the embargo and let Iran lease or purchase commercial aircraft. The original embargo was for military aircraft and parts. I have no idea why there is an embargo on commercial jetliners or parts. I know I wouldn't be comfortable flying on one of those obsolete Russian planes...

Even if the US government lifted the embargo on the sale of commercial aircraft, i seriously doubt if the Iranians will be able to buy them. The Iranian government has very limited foreign currency reserves, they are so short that they are not even able to pay the Russians properly for all the nuclear & defense equipment purchased from them.