An Iranian airliner that ran between Tehran and Yasouj, in the south-west of the country, crashed Sunday 500 kilometers from the capital. There were 66 people aboard. The airline said there were no survivors before returning to this information.
Confusion reigns in Iran after the crash Sunday morning of a plane line that ensured an internal connection. At midday, the Iranian airline Aseman Airlines came back on the record of 66 deaths it had given earlier about the crash. The plane would not be found yet. “We still have no access to the exact point of the crash, so we can not definitively and definitively confirm the death of all the passengers on the plane,” said Mohammad Tabatabaï, director of public relations for the company. , quoted by the Iranian news agency Isna.
The plane that was linking Tehran with the southwestern town of Yasouj “crashed in the Semirom area,” said the head of the national emergency services. The point of impact of the aircraft with the ground was not located at 18:30 local (15:00 GMT), while the night had fallen. The exact causes of the accident were unknown as the aircraft flew over the Zagros Mountains.
Cited by the agency Isna, Civil Aviation indicates that the search operations of the aircraft will continue “during the night”. The discovery of survivors would nevertheless be a miracle. “Heavy snowfall” complicates “the continuation of research operations”. Bad weather prevents helicopter overflights.
The Aseman Airlines plane departed Tehran airport around 8 am (local time) for the city of Yasouj in Isfahan province, in the south-west of the country. It crashed on Mount Dena about 500 kilometers from Tehran and less than 25 kilometers from its destination.
A dozen rescue teams from the Iranian Red Crescent have been sent to the area of the accident.
Difficult access
“Due to the mountainous terrain, it is not possible to send ambulances,” said Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesman of the emergency services at the Iranian news agency Isna. A helicopter attempted to reach the scene of the accident but was unable to land due to poor weather conditions.
The chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said the plane was an ATR brand aircraft. According to him, residents would have seen the plane crash. The plane disappeared 50 minutes after takeoff from Mehrabad airport in Tehran. Located in the west of the capital, this airport is mainly used for domestic flights.