Plane crash leaves 94 dead
2005-12-06 14:39
Tehran - All 94 people on board a military transport plane that crashed into a 10-storey building in Tehran, have been killed.
However, it was not immediately known whether any residents of the building were killed, the mayor of Tehran said.
A large number of fire brigade and police forces and ambulances gathered at the site to extinguish the fire and search for survivors.
The military C-130 transport plane was trying to make an emergency landing at Tehran's Mehrabad airport but failed and crashed into the residential complex.
The residential complex Towhid seemed to have about ten floors but the number of the apartments was not yet clear.
A black cloud was covering the district as police were trying to prevent chaos and facilitate the relief teams' rescue operations.
State television said the plane encountered a "technical problem" immediately after take-off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, which handles domestic, international and military flights.
It said there were 94 people - 10 crew and 84 passengers - on board the flight, which was heading for the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.
After failing to make an emergency landing at Mehrabad, the plane went down in the Yaftabad district in the south of the sprawling city, which is currently enveloped in a blanket of thick smog.
Iran's air force is believed to have no more than around 15 of the US-made C-130s in operation, having acquired the planes, which are also known as Hercules, before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Since then, Iran has been subject to tough US sanctions, hindering the purchase of critical spare parts for all US-made planes in its air force and the civilian flag carrier Iran Air.
A C-130 also crashed near Tehran due to technical problems in June 2003, killing seven people.
In 1997, a C-130 crashed near the northwestern city of Mashhad after encountering engine trouble, killing 86 people, and in February 2000 another air force C-130 crashed on take-off and collided with an Iran Air Airbus 300, killing ten people. - Sapa-dpa/AFP/AP