Iranian rescue teams were yesterday trying to locate the wreckage of a plane a day after it crashed with 65 people on board, as glacial temperatures and mountainous terrain hampered their search.
The Aseman Airlines flight from Tehran disappeared from radar screens on Sunday 50 minutes into its flight to the southwestern city of Yasuj.
It is believed to have gone down in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom.
Photo: Reuters
Helicopters and mountain rescue personnel from the Iranian armed forces and the Red Crescent, as well as local volunteers, were involved in the search, although no one was expected to have survived the crash, state television reported
“Five units started the search operation in early hours of the morning, in minus-16 degrees [Celsius],” a local Red Crescent official was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Military reconnaissance drones were also searching the area.
“We are facing a total enigma. We do not know anything about the crash,” Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency shortly after his arrival in Semirom.
Iran has asked European countries and China to help the search operation with their satellite imagery, the deputy head of the Iranian Space Agency, Mojtaba Saradeghi, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.
The twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 was just more than 24 years old.
It had been restored to service three months ago after being in storage for six years, according to data cited by the Flight Safety Foundation’s aviation-safety.net Web site.
Planemaker ATR said the cause of the accident was not yet known.
Based in the French city of Toulouse, ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo.
Iran has suffered several plane crashes in the past few decades. Tehran blames US sanctions for preventing it from importing new aircraft or spare parts.
A deal with world powers on Iran’s nuclear program has lifted some of those sanctions, opening the way for Iranian airlines to update their fleets.
Aseman signed a deal last year to buy at least 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets. National carrier Iran Air has ordered 80 planes from Boeing and 100 from Airbus.
A Boeing 727 plane crashed in northwestern Iran in 2011, killing 78 people, and a Caspian Airlines Tupolev bound for Armenia crashed in 2009, killing 168.
In February 2003, an Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guards and crew.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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