Ageing military cargo jet crashes, killing 15

A DECADES-OLD Iranian Boeing 707 military cargo plane has crashed while trying to land west of Iran’s capital, killing 15 people on board and leaving a sole survivor, authorities said.

The crash of the jetliner marks the latest aviation disaster for Iran, which hoped to replace its ageing fleet under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the accord in May scuttled billions of dollars in planned sales by Airbus and Boeing to the Islamic Republic, only increasing the danger for passengers in Iranian planes.

The aircraft, which bore the paint scheme of the Iranian air force’s Saha civilian airline, was making an emergency landing at around 8.30am local time at Fath Airport, an airfield controlled by Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

The plane skidded off the runway, crashed through a perimeter fence and into a residential neighbourhood.

Iranian state television aired images of smoke-charred homes and the fuselage of the aircraft lying on the ground in the neighbourhood.

The plane was meant to land at the nearby Payam International Airport, about 25 miles west of Tehran, the Iranian capital.

Authorities did not immediately offer a reason for the crew’s decision to land instead at Fath Airport.

That airport is six miles south west of Payam and its runway is 1,100-metres long, compared with Payam’s 3,600 metres.

In November, a commercial airline reportedly mistook Fath for Payam, but was able to abort its landing.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency later quoted an aviation official saying Monday’s flight likewise mistook Fath for Payam.

Of the 16 people on board the plane, only the flight engineer was known to have survived.