All 66 people on board an Iranian passenger plane were feared dead yesterday after it crashed into the country’s Zagros mountains, with emergency services struggling to locate the wreckage in blizzard conditions.
Aseman Airlines Flight EP3704 left Tehran about 8am for the city of Yasuj, about 500km to the south, the airline’s public relations chief Mohammad Tabatabai told state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
The ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service since 1993, disappeared from radar about 45 minutes after takeoff from Mehrabad International Airport.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, as well as six crew, Tabatabai said.
“After searches in the area, unfortunately we were informed that the plane crashed. Unfortunately, our dear ones lost their lives in this incident,” he said.
However, he later retracted his statement, telling the Iranian Students’ News Agency News Agency (ISNA): “We still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers.”
There were conflicting reports on the location of the crash.
“The rescue and relief teams were sent to the possible area of the crash ... but the helicopter could not continue its path due to snow and blizzard,” Jalal Pooranfar, regional head for Iran’s emergency services, told ISNA.
“Right now there are five rescue and relief teams of the emergency service in the area, but they still haven’t spotted anything,” Pooranfar said.
The Relief and Rescue Organization of Iran’s Red Crescent said it had sent 12 teams to the region.
Aseman has a fleet of 36 planes, including at least three ATR-72s that date back to the early 1990s, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.
A spokesman for ATR, a subsidiary of Europe’s Airbus, said in Paris that the company was “researching the details” of yesterday’s crash.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique