Several Dead As Military Cargo Plane Crashes In Iran

Bad weather caused a Boeing 707 military cargo plane crash on Monday west of the Iranian capital, killing 15 out of the 16 people on board, the Iranian army said.

According to a statement by the army carried by the semi-official Fars news agency, a flight engineer survived and was taken to the hospital.  Reuters reports that the plane went down near Fath airport, near Karaj in the central Iranian province of Alborz.

“A Boeing cargo 707 places carrying meat from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan had an emergency landing at Fath airport today … the flight engineer has been dispatched to the hospital,” the army said.

“It exited the runway during the landing and caught fire after hitting the wall at the end of the runway,” the army. The army’s statement came after some confusion over who owned the plane.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesman for Iran’s civil aviation told had told state TV that the plane belonged to Kyrgyzstan, while a spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport said the plane belonged to Iran’s Payam Air.

State TV said rescue teams had been sent to the area, between the airports of Fath and Payam. It showed footage of burning wreckage of the plane and a plume of smoke rising from the crash site.