Iranian authorities faced bitter recriminations yesterday over the deaths of around 110 people, many of them journalists, when a decrepit military plane ploughed into a densely-populated area of Tehran.
Several newspapers claimed the C-130 transport plane -- bought from the US before the Islamic revolution nearly three decades ago and starved of spare parts -- had been told to take off despite serious reservations.
Just minutes after leaving the runway, the plane suffered engine failure and crashed into the foot of a housing block in a densely populated area of the city. Official media have put the death toll at between 108 and 116, including all 94 passengers and crew.
PHOTO: EPA
"The plane should have taken off at seven in the morning. My husband called me from the plane at eight to say there were technical problems. I was very worried," said the wife of Mohammad Karbalai, a photographer killed in the crash.
"I called him back at 10 o'clock, and the plane was still on the ground. He said the pilot was refusing to take off because of technical problems," she told her late husband's newspaper, the conservative Hamshahri daily.
Among the dead passengers were 68 journalists who were being flown to the southeastern port city of Bandar Abbas and were then to travel to Charbahar further south to report on military exercises.
"It is a disaster for the journalistic community and the government is declaring a day of mourning for the media," Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Safar-Harandi said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Iran's air force is believed to have no more than around 15 of the US-made C-130s in operation. It bought the workhorses, also known as Hercules, before the 1979 Islamic revolution when Iran was ruled by the Washington-backed shah.
Since then, clerical-ruled Iran has been subject to tough US sanctions, hindering the purchase of critical spare parts for all US-made planes.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including