Iran Air Crash Kills At Least 17
July 24, 2009
TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Seventeen people have been reported killed when a passenger aircraft caught fire while landing at an airport in northeastern Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported.
"Seventeen people were killed and 18 injured after a passenger plane caught fire at an airport in Mashhad," IRNA said, adding that the remaining passengers had been evacuated.
It was the second major airline mishap to have befallen Iran in just over a week.
A Russian-made Caspian Airlines jet
crashed shortly after takeoff from Khomeini Airport in Tehran on July 15, killing all 153 passengers and 15 crewmembers.
Iran has had at least a dozen fatal aircraft crashes in the past decade, and each renews concerns about air safety in a country where Western sanctions have limited access to replacement parts.
with additional RFE/RL reporting