Search continues for Iran plane crash wreckage in bad weather
● All 65 on board believed to be dead ● Reason for crash remains unknown
and rescue teams have reached the site of a plane crash in Iran that authorities say killed all 65 people on board.
The Aseman Airlines ATR72 – a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying – went down on Sunday in foggy weather, crashing into Mount Dena in a remote area of southern Iran.
The airliner said all on board Flight EP3704 were killed, including six crew members.
The crash of the aircraft, brought back into service only months ago after being grounded for seven years, was yet another fatal aviation disaster for Iran, for years barred from buying necessary airplane parts due to Western sanctions over its contested nuclear programme.
Search teams reached the crash site before dawn yesterday. An Iran TV station said the weather had improved, though it was still windy.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency cited the military as saying Russia had helped locate the crash site. Russia and Iran are close military allies.
The TV broadcast footage showed a helicopter joining the search as well as ambulances and rescue vehicles preparing to reach the site on 4,400 m high mount de na. the site is reportedly at a height of 3,500m.
State radio said five helicopters and five drones were active in the search operation.
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said more than 150 climbers had joined the operation.
Transport minister Abbas Akhoundi left Tehran yesterday to visit the site of the crash.
Footage posted on independent news websites showed him in the cockpit of a plane taking part in the search.
State TV quoted him as saying the cause of the crash was still “not clear”.
High winds have made it difsearch ficult to fly helicopters and drones, hampering search efforts.
The 2015 nuclear accord with world powers lifted international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear enrichment programme, allowing Iran to purchase planes and aircraft parts.
The country has since signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of new aircraft.
However, US president Donald Trump’s refusal to recertibai fy the deal has injected uncertainty into those sales. The ATR-72 went down near its destination, the southern city of Yasuj, some 485 miles south of the capital, where it took off.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash, although weather was severe.
Dense fog, high winds and heavy snow in the Zagros Mountains made it impossible for rescue crews in helicopters to reach the site in the immediate aftermath.
A se man airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabata- told state TV all on board Flightep 3704 were killed. the plane had 59 passengers and six crew members, lowering the initially reported death toll of 66.
Aseman’s public relations chief, Mohammad Tabatabaie, told ISNA that, until the wreckage was recovered, it was not possible to confirm all deaths.
“Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane,” he said.
The crashed plane was 25 years old, Iran’s civil aviation organisation said.
The United States expressed condolences over the crash in a Farsi-language statement posted on social media on Sunday.
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani expressed sympathy for all involved, saying in a statement the incident brought “great grief and sorrow”.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the accident “saddened the hearts”.