Iranian plane with 66 passengers on board crashes
February 18, 2018 - An Iranian airliner with 66 people on board, which was flying from the capital Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasuj, has crashed in the central city of Semirom, authorities said on Sunday.
All passengers likely dead
An official in the southwestern Province of Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad said on Sunday that all passengers and crews on board of the crashed Iranian ATR plane are reportedly dead.
Reports say those on board were 60 passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot.
The aircraft, which had taken off from the capital on Sunday morning, disappeared off radar later.
Pir-Hossein Koulivand, the head of Iran’s Emergency Medical Services, said the plane had crashed in Semirom in the central Isfahan province, only 185.2 kilometers (113 miles) before reaching Yasuj.
The report identified the plane operated by Aseman Airlines as an ATR-72.
According to Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the plane was carrying 66 people, including six crew.
Foggy weather has hampered aerial rescue efforts in the Padena mountainous area, where the crash is believed to have happened, officials said.
Leader expresses condolences
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a message on Sunday expressed condolences over deadly plane crash claiming lives of passengers as well as crews on board.
In the message, the Leader prayed for the souls of the victims and also sympathized with the bereaved families.
The Leader also ordered related officials to spare no efforts to properly administer the incident.
The Aseman Airlines' passenger plane crashed in the Kohangan Village near the Padena region, 120 Km from Semirom in Isfahan Province, Shahrokh Konari, Governor of the Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad Province earlier told IRNA
Meanwhile, Head of Relief and Rescue Organization of Iran's Red Crescent Society Morteza Salimi said 20 operational teams from three provinces have been dispatched to the site.
The rescue helicopters are on alert but bad weather conditions is hampering the rescue operation, he added.
The ATR plane is a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flights.
Putin condoles with Rouhani over plane crash
President Putin of Russia forwarded a message of condolences to his Iranian counterpart Rouhani over the crash of the passenger plane which claimed the lives of 66 people on Sunday.
President Vladimir Putin sent a message of condolences, on Sunday noon, to his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani over the crash of the passenger liner ATR-72 of Aseman Airlines in the central province of Iran Isfahan. This is stated in a message on the Kremlin website, Mehr News Agency wrote.
Putin stressed that Russia shared the grief of those who lost their relatives in a plane crash and wished them courage and fortitude at this hard time.
Bad weather disrupts Iran domestic flights
Bad weather conditions have cancelled some flights in Iran in the past few days.
Today, a flight from Mashhad, northeastern Iran, to Ilam, western Iran, had o land in Kermanshah, the adjacent province.
A flight from Tehran to Sanandaj, western Iran, that was supposed to take off at 10:30 (local time) had to be cancelled due to weather conditions in the destination.
Particle pollution has been another reason to cancel Iran's domestic flights. Abadan International Airport, Abadan, Khuzestan Province, southwestern Iran, had to cancel two flights on Sunday due to the fact that the vision range was merely two meters.