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Iran plane crashes into building, 116 dead
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-07 06:52
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A military plane carrying dozens of journalists crashed
into a Tehran apartment block and exploded on Tuesday, killing at least 116
people, officials said.
Smoke and flames
rise from a building where a plane crashed in Tehran December 6, 2005. An
Iranian military plane carrying at least 94 people crashed in flames into
a Tehran apartment block on Tuesday, killing all those on board, police
said. [sina] |
All 94 passengers and crew on
the C-130 transport plane died, the Interior Ministry said. Several children, at
home because schools were closed due to a smog alert in the capital, were among
the dead in the building, witnesses added.
The Tehran Coroner's Office told the ISNA students news agency it had
received 116 corpses. Twenty-eight people, some in critical condition, were
taken to hospital.
"I was sitting at home when the windows suddenly smashed and flames came
pouring in," a woman in her fifties with cuts on her neck, told Reuters. "There
was smoke everywhere."
Iran's fire brigade chief Ahmad Ziaie told state television the building
which was hit, located in a densely populated area of south Tehran, housed about
150 people. The crash occurred in the early afternoon.
"Both the main and reserve fuel tanks were full which is why the plane went
up in flames as soon as it hit," he said.
The Air Force plane was bound for the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas. It was
taking 68 local journalists to cover military exercises. Military personnel were
also aboard.
Minutes after take off the pilot reported engine trouble and requested an
emergency landing at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, but crashed just short of the
runway, police said.
Iranian journalists at the scene wept and consoled one another over their
colleagues' deaths.
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