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By: - 12th February 2002 at 16:49 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
RE: TU-154 CRASHES IN WESTERN IRAN
Very sad to here another TU-154 has gone down,how many have gone crashed in the past few months or so?My thoughts go out to the people who have lost family and friends.
Posts: 6,503
By: T5 - 12th February 2002 at 10:36
COPIED FROM HTTP://NEWS.BBC.CO.UK/
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An Iranian plane said to be carrying 117 passengers has crashed into snowy mountains near the western Iranian city of Khorramabad.
Witnesses at a local hospital said doctors had reported 30 dead so far.
The plane, a Tu-154, left Tehran on Tuesday morning for Khorramabad, about 375 kilometres (230 miles) south-west of the capital.
The aircraft was operated by the state carrier Iran Air's affiliated company, Iran Air Tours, the radio said.
A local resident told the Reuters news agency that the plane crashed into a mountain close to the airport as it was landing.
He said: "The plane was totally destroyed and scattered in small pieces across the mountain. From what I saw, I don't think anyone could have survived."
A senior official at Iran Air said the plane had disappeared off radar screens south-west of Khorramabad.
'Big explosion'
Villagers in the mountainous Yaft-e Kouh area heard a "big explosion" after the plane went down, the radio said.
The radio said the plane was a Tu-154, a Russian-designed Tupolev with a 148-passenger capacity.
An official at the Khorramabad governor's office said the plane had not yet been found, but searchers had identified the area of the crash.
There was no immediate information on the cause of the crash.
Previous crashes
Another Tu-154 plane crashed near Irkutsk in Russia last July, killing all 133 passengers and 10 crew members aboard.
In May of last year, a Russian-made Iranian airliner crashed in north-eastern Iran.
All 30 people on board the YAK-40 were killed, including the transport minister and seven lawmakers.
Officials then blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error.