At least 100 dead in Iran plane crash

TEHRAN – At least 100 people were killed yesterday when an Iranian military C-130 transport plane crashed into a residential area of the capital Tehran, official media and local officials said.

State radio said all 94 passengers and crew died in the crash next to a high-rise housing block and domestic gas supply depot. Among the dead were 40 state television journalists who were travelling on the plane to the southeastern port city of Charbahar to cover military exercises, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.A police official at the scene said that seven bodies of local residents had been recovered, and more people on the ground were feared dead.”They suffocated from the smoke,” said Nasser Shabani, a local police commander.The semi-official Fars News agency said at least 40 bodies had been retrieved from the crash site in southern Tehran.”All the people on the plane must be dead.It was horrible, all the bodies were burned and crushed,” a policeman at the scene said.But another policeman said at least one man had been pulled alive from the wreckage.He said the survivor, who had been on the plane, was on fire but that he and other rescuers had extinguished the flames with a blanket.”It is awful down here.I am suffocating,” Red Crescent official Shahram Alamdari told Reuters by telephone.The official IRNA news agency said 94 people were on board the plane.Fars put the number at 106.IRNA said the plane was bound for the southern port of Bandar Abbas and most of the passengers were local journalists who were going to cover military exercises in the region.The pilot had reported engine trouble and requested an emergency landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad international airport, police told state television.The apartment block is in the Shahrak-e Towhid neighbourhood inhabited by members of the military and their families.It lies on the flight-path to Mehrabad airport.”I was sitting in my shop when I saw an aeroplane moving in the wrong way,” said a resident who gave his name as Mohsen.”We are used to aeroplanes but I thought: ‘Oh my God, this one is going to crash’.Then it struck the building with a big bang and smoke came pouring out,” he said.Police cordoned off the area, trying to keep back scores of anxious residents trying to push past them.Emergency services were using helicopters, ambulances and buses to evacuate the dead and wounded.Bulldozers also arrived at the scene.Smoke was still pouring out of the building.Military officials could not be reached for information.In Iran’s last major military air disaster, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in the southeast of the country on February 19, 2003, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.- Nampa-AFP-ReutersAmong the dead were 40 state television journalists who were travelling on the plane to the southeastern port city of Charbahar to cover military exercises, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.A police official at the scene said that seven bodies of local residents had been recovered, and more people on the ground were feared dead.”They suffocated from the smoke,” said Nasser Shabani, a local police commander.The semi-official Fars News agency said at least 40 bodies had been retrieved from the crash site in southern Tehran.”All the people on the plane must be dead.It was horrible, all the bodies were burned and crushed,” a policeman at the scene said.But another policeman said at least one man had been pulled alive from the wreckage.He said the survivor, who had been on the plane, was on fire but that he and other rescuers had extinguished the flames with a blanket.”It is awful down here.I am suffocating,” Red Crescent official Shahram Alamdari told Reuters by telephone.The official IRNA news agency said 94 people were on board the plane.Fars put the number at 106.IRNA said the plane was bound for the southern port of Bandar Abbas and most of the passengers were local journalists who were going to cover military exercises in the region.The pilot had reported engine trouble and requested an emergency landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad international airport, police told state television.The apartment block is in the Shahrak-e Towhid neighbourhood inhabited by members of the military and their families.It lies on the flight-path to Mehrabad airport.”I was sitting in my shop when I saw an aeroplane moving in the wrong way,” said a resident who gave his name as Mohsen.”We are used to aeroplanes but I thought: ‘Oh my God, this one is going to crash’.Then it struck the building with a big bang and smoke came pouring out,” he said.Police cordoned off the area, trying to keep back scores of anxious residents trying to push past them.Emergency services were using helicopters, ambulances and buses to evacuate the dead and wounded.Bulldozers also arrived at the scene.Smoke was still pouring out of the building.Military officials could not be reached for information.In Iran’s last major military air disaster, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in the southeast of the country on February 19, 2003, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.- Nampa-AFP-Reuters