Twenty-nine people were killed on Friday when an Iranian airliner caught fire after landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Iran's civil aviation chief said, lowering initial accounts that had listed up to 80 dead.
Talking on state television, Nurollah Rezai Niaraki of the Civil Aviation Organization said 29 bodies had been recovered from the plane, 43 people were injured and the rest of the 148 people on board survived unhurt.
He added that some of those injured had been treated as out-patients at Mashhad hospitals.
State television had earlier said the death toll on the flight to Mashhad from Bandar Abbas was at least 80.
Niaraki also said that since the flight crew survived the crash, a better understanding of the cause of the accident will eventually surface.
State media previously reported that the Russian-made Tupolev 154, on an internal flight from the southern port of Bandar Abbas, skidded off the runway and crashed into the nearby barriers, leaving gaping holes in the fuselage.
The incident was the latest tragedy to hit Iran's aviation industry, which has a fleet largely made up of Soviet or old Western planes because of US sanctions imposed after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
According to figures published in the Iranian media and not counting Friday's accident in Mashhad, more than 1,460 people were killed in 17 air crashes over the past 25 years, including an Iranian plane shot down over the Gulf by a US warship in 1988.
The first television pictures showed the plane, owned by the Iran Airtours carrier, lying flat with its wheels sheared off on the outskirts of the airport. One huge hole was burned into the center of the fuselage.
Rescue workers used hoses to douse the burning plane, turning the ground around into a quagmire of mud and water. Several corpses lay on the ground beside the plane, swathed in blankets.
"As the plane was landing one of its tires burst, forcing to it to swerve off the runway before hitting nearby barriers and bursting into flames," an airport official said.
An Iranian civil aviation official was quoted in the media as saying the plane did not ask permission for making an emergency landing before the accident.
US sanctions mean that Iran can only shop for Airbus or Boeing planes on the used market, and Iranian officials have blamed the blockade for the regular plane crashes in the Islamic republic.
The Iranian media reported that regular flights have been resumed at Mashhad International Airport.
The sanctions cover not only US-made airplanes and spare parts, but also those made by Europe's Airbus consortium when a significant number of parts originate in the US.
The crash comes as Iran is threatened with further sanctions over its controversial nuclear program after it failed to meet a deadline on Thursday to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment work.
Washington expressed sorrow over the plane crash deaths.
"We are sorry to learn of the innocent loss of life in the crash of the TU-154 in Mashhad," US State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said.
"We want to send our sincere condolences to all in Iran who lost loved ones in this regrettable accident," she said.
The US, which is leading a drive to impose UN Security Council sanctions, has predicted that the new penalties will be agreed upon as early as this month.
Media reports have indicated that new sanctions would start with a travel ban for Iranian nuclear officials, ratcheting up later to more severe measures such as restrictions on commercial airline flights.
Iranian Transport Minister Mohammad Rahamti, quoted by the ISNA news agency, acknowledged that Iran is facing sanctions over the purchasing of Western made planes.
He added, however, that "the accident in Mashhad has nothing to do with the age of the plane."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in