On a domestic flight in Iran, a passenger aircraft mit66 passengers on board crashed. The aircraft of airline Aseman on its way from capital Tehran to small town of Yasudsch in southwestern province of Isfahan in a snowstorm and smashed on a mountain in Sagros mountains, about 20 kilometers from Yasudsch away. As a spokesman for airline Aseman Airlines, all 60 passengers and six crew members died during crash.

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The Red Crescent sent rescue squads to hard-to-reach region. The salvage work had to be interrupted according to news agency Isna after dark and due to bad wear. "With stronger wind, with snow, rain and darkness it is not possible for rescue and salvage teams to reach high altitudes," state television station Irib on Sunday evening. If wear improves, search for ATR 72 machine would be continued on Monday morning. Five helicopters would be available for this purpose.

A spokesman for Aseman airline dissociated himself from his statement that none of persons on board aircraft had survived accident. One could confirm death of all passengers "not exactly and definitively", said spokesman to news agency Isna.

The machine was 25 years old

A spokesman for Civil Aviation Authority did not want to comment on cause of accident. An exact analysis was only possible if flight recorder of machine was found and evaluated. The machine is from year 1993 and has been modernised several times over past 25 years, said spokesman for authorities in an interview.

Iran's spiritual head Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke of his condolences to families of passengers. According to information from an Iranian news agency, President Hassan Ruhani had a crisis staff set up by Ministry of Transport to clarify cause of accident and to control salvage operations.

Also from Germany and Israel, condolences were expressed: "We take part in grief of Iranian people for people who lost ir lives," Kondolierte government spokesman Steffen Sally on Twitter. Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu also extolled his condolences to victims ' families. After all, he has no problems with Iranian people, but only with political leadership in Tehran, Netanyahu declared.

The company Aseman Airlines is on current black list of unsure airlines of EU Commission. Because of decades-long sanctions, many aircraft in Iran are outdated. The last GroßenUnglück came in August 2014, when a passenger machine crashed into a residential area in Tehran. 39 people were killed, Elfweitere were injured.

Date Of Update: 19 February 2018, 12:03