Passenger aircraft dropped in Iran, 66 people were killed

Aseman Airlines announced that one of its passenger planes fell into the Zagros mountains, Iran, killing all 66 people on the plane.

Aseman Airlines' ATR-72 aircraft.(Photo: Plane Spotters.)

"The plane fell into Semirom. All emergency forces were in a state of alarm ," Pir Hossein Koolivand, head of the Iranian emergency agency, told Fars News.

The plane crashed, believed to be the ATR-72 of Aseman Airlines, disappeared from radar this morning while flying from Tehran to Yasuj. The plane is located about 80 km north of Yasuj, the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces, southwestern Iran.

Aladin Borujerdi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee, the Iranian parliament, said the plane carried 66 people, including 60 passengers and six crew members.

Iranian IRIB television reported the announcement from Mohammad Tabatabai, spokesman Aseman Airlines, said all passengers and flight crew members were killed.

Iran deployed a helicopter to the scene, because the terrain was not suitable for an ambulance to operate. Search and rescue campaigns are being hampered by bad weather, according to Tasnim.

The ATR-72 came into operation in the late 1980s, but it is still quite new to Iranian airlines. Iran in 2016 signed a contract to buy 20 ATR-72 aircraft, considering it could buy another 20, and receive the first shipment in 2017.

According to Plane Spotters, Aseman Airlines' fleet, a Tehran-based privately-owned airline, is quite old, with aircraft received between 1993 and 2009.