Breaking news: Tupolev Caspian Air Crash 168 Passenger die

July 16, 2009
Iran plane crash kills 168
Russian-made Tupolev plane with 168 passengers and crew had engine fire, say witnesses

A soldier stands near a piece of wreckage from a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger plane crash on Wednesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

TEHERAN - AN IRANIAN airliner crashed into farmland in the north-west of the country on Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board, state media reported. Witnesses said the plane exploded after it dropped out of the sky, and state TV footage showed a deep crater littered with smoking wreckage and debris, including a large chunk of a wing.

Those on board
AMONG those on board the plane were about 25 Armenians, according to an airline representative in Yerevan, while Iranian officials said they included 10 members of Iran's junior national judo team.


Tupolev airliner safety records
TUPOLEV Tu-154 airliners like the one that crashed in Iran yesterday, killing 168 people, are Soviet-era Russian workhorses whose safety record falls short of Western designs, Bloomberg news reported.



The Tu-154, which first flew in 1968, has a fatal accident every 431,200 flights, according to London-based aviation consultant Ascend. Boeing Co's MD-80 has a fatality every 1.5 million flights and the 737, the world's best-selling passenger plane, every 2.68 million, Ascend says.

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The Caspian Airlines' Russian TU-154 plane crashed near the city of Qazvin, about 120km north-west of the capital, shortly after takeoff from Teheran's Imam Khomeini international airport.

Civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said 153 passengers and 15 crew members were on the plane, which was flying to the Armenian capital Yerevan.

Among those on board were about 25 Armenians, according to an airline representative in Yerevan, while Iranian officials said they included 10 members of Iran's junior national judo team.

'The plane took off from the Imam Khomeini airport, and 16 minutes later, it disappeared off the radar, and then it crashed,' the civil aviation spokesman said.

Armenian television reported that the crash had been caused by an engine fire. Iran's Isna news agency also quoted a local police officer as saying that some people had reported the plane was on fire in mid-air. A witness told the English-language Press TV from the crash site near the village of Janat Abad: 'The aircraft all of a sudden fell out of the sky and exploded on impact, where you see the crater.'

Qazvin emergency services director Hossein Bahzadpour told the official Irna news agency that the plane had been destroyed completely, with the wreckage in flames. 'It is highly likely that all the passengers on the flight were killed,' he said.

Grieving relatives and friends of passengers gathered at Yerevan airport, where teams were on hand to give assistance and information.

Iran, which has been under years of international sanctions, has suffered a number of aviation disasters over the past decade.

Wednesday's crash was the third in nearly seven weeks. On June30, a Yemenia Airbus carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean in bad weather. A 13-year-old girl was the only survivor.