3DVVHQJHU SODQH FUDVKHV LQ ,UDQ ZLWK DERDUG
IR$1 - $ll 66 people on board a passenger plane that crashed yesterday in a mountainous region of southern Iran are presumed dead, the airline said.
The $seman $irlines plane was flying from Tehran to the southwestern city of <asuj when it disappeared 50 minutes into the flight, according to a post on the airline’s Instagram account.
The flight, which departed at 7 55 a.m. local time 11.25 p.m. (T Saturday , crashed in .ohangan village, 120 kilometers 74 miles from Semirom town, authorities told Iran’s Fars News Agency. Iran’s Supreme /eader $yatollah $li .hamenei and 3resident +assan Rouhani e[pressed their condolences to the victims and their families, ordering officials to spare no efforts in their rescue operation, the state-run Islamic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
The $TR aircraft, a twin-engine turboprop typically used for short-distance regional flights, hit the Dena Mountains, the report said.
$seman’s public relations chief, Mohammad Tabatabaie, told Iran’s semi-official news agency IS1$ that until the wreckage was recovered it was not possible to confirm all deaths. ³*iven 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 66 people on board included 60 passengers, two flight attendants, two pilots and two members of security forces.
$seman $irlines posted an image of the plane involved in the crash on its Instagram account.
Twenty rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site. One helicopter earlier forced to turn back due to bad weather.
³This is a snow-covered mountainous area, much like the Rockies in $merica or the (uropean $lps,´ CNN Senior International Correspondent Sam .iley said. ³$ny rescue operation will depend entirely on the weather.´
Several flights from Tehran were disrupted yesterday due to bad weather, according to IRNA. $nd at $badan International $irport in southwestern Iran, two domestic flights were canceled due to pollution, which reduced visibility range to two meters, IRNA added.
(CNN)