Iranian Plane Crashes After Takeoff, Killing 39

A passenger plane has crashed on the outskirts of Iran's capital Tehran, killing at least 39 people and injuring nine others, government officials and state media. 

IRNA news agency said the Sepahan Airlines plane, bound for Iran's eastern city of Tabas, crashed shortly after takeoff from Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning.

A total of 48 people, 40 passengers and eight crew members, were on board when the plane crashed in the residential area of Azadi town, just five km to the west of Tehran, IRINN state TV said.

Image by: BBC

State media had reported earlier that all 48 people on board had died.

Failure in one of the plane's engines caused the plane to crash on the northern side of the Tehran-Karaj highway, semi-official Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Ilkhani, the head of Iran Airports Company, as saying.

The plane crashed into the Azad residential block on Mina 6 Boulevard, state news agency IRNA reported. State television said at least three people in the area were taken to hospital with burns.

The Antonov-140 type plane crashed at 9:18am (04:48 GMT). IRNA's English website had earlier reported it was a Taban Airline jet.

Mehrabad is located in a western suburb of Tehran and mainly functions as a domestic airport.

A local resident, Hosseine, who witnessed the catastrophe said the rear end of the airplane fell onto the central street after the plan lost control.

Image by: BBC

"I saw the airplane falling down gradually and then began to wobble until it lost control. The rear end of the plane, which is separated from the fuselage, fell onto the middle of the street. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic nor many people on the street," the witness said.

Iran has suffered a series of aeroplane crashes, blamed on its ageing aircraft and poor maintenance.

US and Western sanctions prevent Iran from updating its American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well.

The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall.

The last major airliner crash in Iran happened in January 2011, when an Iran Air Boeing 727 broke to pieces on impact while trying an emergency landing in a snowstorm in the northwestern city of Urmia, killing at least 77 people.

In July 2009, a Russian-made jetliner crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board.

In February 2003, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard.