Ukrainian plane carrying 180 passengers crashed outside Tehran airport: Iran state media

A Ukrainian airplane carrying 176 people — including passengers and crew — crashed Wednesday morning shortly after takeoff near the airport in Tehran, killing all on board, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office confirmed.

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Iranian state-run IRNA news agency reported the plane had taken off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport. The flight was bound for the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. All 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations perished, both Iranian emergency officials and Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.

Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran’s Road and Transportation Ministry, said a fire struck one of the plane’s engines, causing the pilot to lose control of the aircraft, sending it crashing to the ground. Ukrainian officials meanwhile said they are still working to confirm the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Zelensky offered his “sincere condolences to family and loved ones of all passengers and crew members.” In a Facebook post, his office added that the Ukrainian embassy in Iran can provide a complete list of the dead.  Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk also confirmed the casualty toll.

“Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims,” Ukrainian parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, added in a Facebook statement.

The majority of the passengers were Iranian nationals, Russia’s RIA Novosti agency reported, citing Iranian authorities. Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv, where the plane was headed, told The Associated Press that passengers on this flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.

The Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) shared a video online that claims to show the plane catch fire as it descends. The video was not independently confirmed.

Pir Hossein Kulivand, an Iranian emergency official, told state TV rescuers were trying to collect the dead. A photo published by the Iranian state-run IRNA news agency showed rescue officials in a farm field, with what appeared to be pieces of the aircraft laying nearby.

An investigation team was at the site of the crash in southwestern outskirts of Tehran, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said.

“After taking off from Imam Khomeini international airport it crashed between Parand and Shahriar,” Jafarzadeh said. “An investigation team from the national aviation department was dispatched to the location after the news was announced.”

Debris is seen from a plane crash on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2019. (AP Photos/Mohammad Nasiri)

Debris is seen from a plane crash on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2019. (AP Photos/Mohammad Nasiri)

The crash came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Flight data from the airport showed a Ukrainian 737-800 flown by Ukraine International Airlines took off Wednesday morning, then stopped sending data almost immediately afterward, according to website FlightRadar24.

In a statement to Fox News, Boeing simply said: “We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information.”

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The Boeing 737-800 is a very common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of the type of plane are used by airlines around the world. Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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