A military aircraft crashed into several residential buildings in Tehran on Tuesday, according to sources in Iran's police force and the Red Crescent. At least 116 people are believed dead after the C-130 aircraft, which was reportedly carrying 80 passengers and 10 crewmembers, according to Reuters. A number of journalists and photographers who were among the victims of the crash in southern Tehran. They were flying to Bandar Abbas in southern Iran aboard the military cargo aircraft for coverage of a military exercise.
The plane reportedly crashed into a 10-storey building in the Yaftabad district. It had just taken off from the city's Mehrabad airport, which handles domestic, international and military flights, and was reportedly attempting to make an emergency landing as it crashed into the building.
At least 25 of the building's estimated 250 residents are believed to have been killed, and another 15 injured, according to CTV.
The mayor of Tehran announced that the plane's 90-person crew was also likely to have been killed, as firefighters attempted to rescue as many survivors as possible from the burning building, according to Iranian state television. The head of Public Relations Office of Air Force Colonel Mahini said that 86 burnt bodies and six wounded were taken to Shariat Razavi hospital and 20 bodies and 10 wounded to Fayyaz Bakhsh hospital.
In February 2003, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran killing all 276 on board.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
