Plane Crash Takes Lives of 65 Compatriots:
Our Hearts Are Overwhelmed With Sadness
TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- An Iranian commercial plane crashed in a foggy and mountainous southwestern region of the country Sunday, killing all 65 people on board.
The Aseman Airlines ATR-72 plane, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-haul regional flight, was travelling from the capital to the southwestern city of Yasuj. It crashed in the Zagros mountain range, some 390 miles south of the capital.
Airline spokesman Muhammad Taghi Tabatabai said all on the flight were killed. The plane carried 59 passengers, including two children, and six crew members. The airline had initially said 60 passengers were on board but it later said one passenger had missed the flight.
Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 1,400-feet tall, due to bad weather and that rescue helicopters couldn’t reach the remote crash site because of dense fog, high winds and heavy snow in the area.
As night approached, emergency workers were scouring the mountainous area by land. Officials said rescue teams would work through the night, battling blizzard conditions to find the plane.
"It is getting colder and darker and still no sign of the plane,” said a television reporter accompanying rescue teams searching snow-covered areas in Mount Dena which has more than 40 peaks higher than 4,000 meters (13,000 feet).
The plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport which mainly handles domestic flights.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei sent a message of condolence, saying the news had "left our hearts overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow". President Hassan Rouhani asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.
The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Locals described hearing the crash, although no one had found the crash site yet.
The plane’s last signal at 0555 GMT showed it at 16,975 feet and descending, according to airplane-tracking website FlightRadar24. The pilot was in contact with the tower 14 miles from the airport.
A man who missed the doomed flight told reporters of his conflicting emotions.
"God has been really kind to me but I am so sad from the bottom of my heart for all those dear ones who lost their lives," the unnamed man told the Tabnak news website, which showed a picture of his unused ticket.
Worried relatives of passengers gathered at Yasuj airport.
"I kept telephoning all morning but they (the relative) wouldn’t answer. So I called my brother and he said they will get here, it (the plane) is not behind schedule yet,” a young woman told a reporter for IRIB broadcaster.
"I told him it is raining here. He said no (meaning, don’t worry). He called later and said the plane had crashed.”
Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.
It is Iran’s third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.
The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24. The ATR-72 that crashed Sunday, with the tail number EP-ATS, had been built in 1993, Aseman Airlines CEO Ali Abedzadeh told state TV.
On Instagram, Aseman Airlines highlighted the doomed aircraft in October, saying it had been "grounded” for seven years but would be "repaired and will be operational after checking and testing.”
European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo SpA., said it had no immediate information about the crash.
Aseman Airlines has suffered other major crashes with fatalities. In October 1994, a twin-propeller Fokker F-28 1000 commuter plane operated by the airline crashed near Natanz, 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Tehran, also killing 66 people on board. An Aseman Airlines chartered flight in August 2008, flown by an Itek Air Boeing 737, crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing 74 people.
Following the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars.
In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536 million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. The company delivered eight aircraft in 2017 and plans to deliver a further 12 by the end of this year.
Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.
The Aseman Airlines ATR-72 plane, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-haul regional flight, was travelling from the capital to the southwestern city of Yasuj. It crashed in the Zagros mountain range, some 390 miles south of the capital.
Airline spokesman Muhammad Taghi Tabatabai said all on the flight were killed. The plane carried 59 passengers, including two children, and six crew members. The airline had initially said 60 passengers were on board but it later said one passenger had missed the flight.
Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 1,400-feet tall, due to bad weather and that rescue helicopters couldn’t reach the remote crash site because of dense fog, high winds and heavy snow in the area.
As night approached, emergency workers were scouring the mountainous area by land. Officials said rescue teams would work through the night, battling blizzard conditions to find the plane.
"It is getting colder and darker and still no sign of the plane,” said a television reporter accompanying rescue teams searching snow-covered areas in Mount Dena which has more than 40 peaks higher than 4,000 meters (13,000 feet).
The plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport which mainly handles domestic flights.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei sent a message of condolence, saying the news had "left our hearts overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow". President Hassan Rouhani asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.
The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Locals described hearing the crash, although no one had found the crash site yet.
The plane’s last signal at 0555 GMT showed it at 16,975 feet and descending, according to airplane-tracking website FlightRadar24. The pilot was in contact with the tower 14 miles from the airport.
A man who missed the doomed flight told reporters of his conflicting emotions.
"God has been really kind to me but I am so sad from the bottom of my heart for all those dear ones who lost their lives," the unnamed man told the Tabnak news website, which showed a picture of his unused ticket.
Worried relatives of passengers gathered at Yasuj airport.
"I kept telephoning all morning but they (the relative) wouldn’t answer. So I called my brother and he said they will get here, it (the plane) is not behind schedule yet,” a young woman told a reporter for IRIB broadcaster.
"I told him it is raining here. He said no (meaning, don’t worry). He called later and said the plane had crashed.”
Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.
It is Iran’s third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.
The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24. The ATR-72 that crashed Sunday, with the tail number EP-ATS, had been built in 1993, Aseman Airlines CEO Ali Abedzadeh told state TV.
On Instagram, Aseman Airlines highlighted the doomed aircraft in October, saying it had been "grounded” for seven years but would be "repaired and will be operational after checking and testing.”
European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo SpA., said it had no immediate information about the crash.
Aseman Airlines has suffered other major crashes with fatalities. In October 1994, a twin-propeller Fokker F-28 1000 commuter plane operated by the airline crashed near Natanz, 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Tehran, also killing 66 people on board. An Aseman Airlines chartered flight in August 2008, flown by an Itek Air Boeing 737, crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing 74 people.
Following the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars.
In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536 million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. The company delivered eight aircraft in 2017 and plans to deliver a further 12 by the end of this year.
Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.