BBC:
A Ukrainian Boeing-737 with 180 people onboard has crashed in Iran, according to local media.
The aircraft belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashed just after take-off from Iran’s Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran, said the Fars state news agency.
Preliminary reports suggest that the plane was en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
It is unclear whether the incident is linked to the Iran-US confrontation.
Rescue teams have been sent to the area, near the airport, where the aircraft crashed.
“The plane is on fire but we have sent crews … and we may be able to save some passengers,” Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s emergency services, told state television, according to Reuters news agency.
H/T ML.
VIDEO: Survivors ‘unlikely’ among 176 onboard Ukrainian airliner crash outside Tehran
The wreckage of a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers. It crashed shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. (Photo: IRNA)
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Ukrainian airliner heading to Kiev early Tuesday crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport at the Iranian capital of Tehran. An official told state media that finding survivors among the passengers and crewmembers was “unlikely.”
The plane that crashed was a Ukrainian Boeing 737-800, carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members, according to an “accurate” preliminary report on the incident, state-run ISNA quoted the spokesperson of the Iranian civil aviation agency, Reza Jaafarzaddeh, as saying.
The plane took off at 6:12 a.m. local time from the Imam Khomeini International Airport, outside Tehran, Jaafarzaddeh continued. Six minutes later, it crashed between the towns of Shahrayar and Parand to the west of the national capital.
The flight was scheduled to take off about an hour earlier but appears to have been delayed.
The Iranian Red Crescent has said it is “unlikely” to find survivors amid the debris at the crash site, which photos showed to be at a public place near several homes in the surrounding area.
Jaafarzaddeh later confirmed all the people on board had been killed.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/8d45c93b-be8c-4e3f-bb55-8f72d54914ee
Ukrainian airliner crashes in Iran, killing all 176 on board
Report: 170 dead after Ukrainian plane crashes near Tehran airport
Iranian media: Boeing 737 belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashes after take-off due to technical problems.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/274256
No Mayday call, no nothing. The pilot swerved the aircraft toward an empty field to avoid crashing into a residential area.
Had the man not taped what he was seeing in the sky, nobody would have known what truly happened.
Yesterday was a bad day for Iran. Deaths/injuries related to the funeral stampede, loads of wasted missiles, the passenger jet fiasco, and the two earthquakes.
Maybe Allah is sending them a message.
176 Dead Include 63 Canadians, Three Brits After Boeing 737 Crashes in Iran (breitbart, Jan 8, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/08/176-dead-include-63-canadians-three-brits-after-boeing-737-crashes-in-iran/
“Three British citizens and 63 Canadians are said to be among the dead after a Ukranian passenger flight crashed minutes after departing from an airport in Iran, just hours after the rogue regime conducted missile strikes against American military targets in Iraq.
A total of 176 people died after a Ukranian owned Boeing 737 crashed just eight minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday morning, killing everyone on board. According to the Ukranian minister for foreign affairs, the victims by nationality were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians including the nine crew, ten Swedish, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British.
The Ukranian embassy in Iran initially blamed engine failure for the crash and denied any terrorist involvement, however, the embassy later retracted the statement saying that all options are being considered, reports The Telegraph.
“A commission is working to clarify the causes of the plane crash. Any statements regarding the causes of the accident prior to the findings of the commission are not official”, the embassy said in a statement.
Ali Abedzadeh, the chief of Tehran’s civil aviation organisation said that Iran will not hand over the plane’s black box to Boeing, according to Reuters.
In response to reports of engine failure, Ukrainian International Airlines (UIA) who operated the Boeing 737 aircraft said that there was “nothing wrong” with the plane, which is reported to have been serviced two days prior to the crash and was under four years old.
“The aircraft was in good condition… We guarantee the serviceability of our aircraft and the high qualification of our crews”, President of UIA Yevgeny Dykhne said in a press briefing.
Ali Hashem, a BBC correspondent in the region tweeted out a video that purportedly shows the plane on fire while still in the air, although the footage has not been confirmed.
The UK Foreign Office said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in the plane crash in Iran overnight. We are urgently seeking confirmation about how many British nationals were on board and will do all we can to support any families affected.”
So far airlines from Russia, Ukraine, France and China have suspended flights over Iran and Iraq, in response to the crash.
The Boeing 737-800 that crashed over Tehran is a similar airframe to the 737 Max 8 aircraft which was grounded last year after the aircraft suffered two fatal crashes. The 737-800 is not the exact same aircraft, however, and runs on different software than the beleaguered Max 8.
The fatal plane crash in Iran occurred just hours after the theocratic regime in launched over a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. airbases in Iraq, as a retaliatory strike after American drones killed Iran’s terrorist general Qasem Soleimani. So far it is not clear whether the crash is related to a wider retaliation scheme by Iran, or was a tragic accident.”
CBC -63 Canadians killed in Ukrainian plane crash near Tehran
https://www.farsnews.com/media/13981018001098/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85%7C-%D9%BE%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%BA%D9%85-%D8%B9%D8%B2%DB%8C%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87-%D8%B3%D9%88%DA%AF%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B4%D8%AF
CBC – Edmonton’s Iranian community reeling after many locals killed in Iran plane crash
Payman Parseyan says Edmonton’s Iranian community suffered many losses on the plane that crashed minutes after taking off from Tehran.
“Every one of our community members was touched in one way or another when that plane went down,” he says.
Fragment found at the crash site looks like the head of an anti-aircraft missile
https://twitter.com/AshkanMonfared_/status/1214956002455375872
CBC – Trudeau speaks about fatal plane crash
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes questions on the Ukraine International Airlines plane crash in Iran that killed 63 Canadians as well as Trump’s NATO comments and the Iranian missile strikes