Military Cargo Plane Crashes in Iran, 15 Killed

Reuters
1/14/2019
Updated:
1/14/2019

DUBAI—A Boeing 707 military cargo plane crashed in bad weather on Jan. 14, west of the Iranian capital, killing 15 out of the 16 people on board, the Iranian army said.

A flight engineer survived and was taken to hospital, the army said in a statement carried by the semi-official Fars news agency. The aircraft’s black boxa cockpit voice recorder (CVR) - had been recovered at the crash site, Fars said.

The plane went down near Fath airport, which belongs to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and is located near Karaj in the central Iranian province of Alborz.

People react at the site of a Boeing 707 military cargo plane which crashed on the west of the Iranian capital, near Fath airport, near Karaj, Iran, on Jan. 14, 2019. (Tasnim News Agency/Reuters)
People react at the site of a Boeing 707 military cargo plane which crashed on the west of the Iranian capital, near Fath airport, near Karaj, Iran, on Jan. 14, 2019. (Tasnim News Agency/Reuters)

“A Boeing cargo 707 place carrying meat from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan had an emergency landing at Fath airport today ... the flight engineer has been dispatched to the hospital,” the army said in the statement.

“It exited the runway during the landing and caught fire after hitting the wall at the end of the runway,” it said.

An army spokesman, Shahin Taghikhani, told state TV that the plane belonged to Iran and that all on board were Iranian citizens. The army’s statement came after conflicting reports over who owned the plane.

State TV said rescue teams had been sent to the area, between the airports of Fath and Payam International Airport, where the plane had been meant to land.

By Parisa Hafezi