SEARCH BEGINS FOR CRASHED IRANIAN PLANE’S BLACK BOXES

21:1715/07/2009

RIA Novosti
July 15, 2009
YEREVAN

A search has begun for the black boxes from a passenger plane that
crashed in northern Iran on Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board,
the country’s ISNA news agency reported.

The Russian-made Tupolev airliner was en route from Tehran to the
Armenian capital, Yerevan, when it crashed 16 minutes after takeoff,
on a farm in the province of Qazvin, some 200 km (124 miles) from
the Iranian capital.

"Army units have begun a search for the black boxes from the crashed
plane" the vice-governor of the region told ISNA.

Iranian state television channels have quoted a spokesman for the
Iranian Civil Aviation Organization as saying that 153 passengers
and 15 crewmembers were on board the Tu-154, owned by Caspian Airlines.

Caspian Airlines said, however, that there were 154 passengers,
including two children, and 16 crew members onboard.

According to the Armenian foreign ministry, some 40 passengers on
the ill-fated plane were ethnic Armenians, but only five of them had
Armenian citizenship. Two Georgian nationals were also onboard –
the wife of the head of Georgia’s mission to Iran and a financial
official at the Georgian embassy in Armenia.

Other passengers on the list were Iranians, including eight athletes
with Iran’s national youth judo team and two coaches.

The plane took off half-an-hour late, at 12:02 local time (07:32 GMT),
due to poor weather conditions, the deputy chief of Armenia’s civil
aviation organization said.

"The Tu-154 took off from Tehran to Yerevan at 12:02 and should have
entered Armenian airspace at 12:52 [08:22 GMT]. However, at 12:48
[08:18], Iranian flight operators reported to Armenian ground services
that the plane had gone off the radar screens," Arsen Pogosyan said.

TV pictures of the crash site showed scorched earth, scattered
fragments of plane and a few charred pieces of clothing and personal
belongings. Emergency services said the plane was completely
destroyed. The plane, which fell from a height of about 8,000 km,
has created a six-meter deep crater.

Iranian Roads and Transportation Minister Hamed Behbahani said a
working group had been established to investigate the cause of the
crash. Representatives of the CIS aviation incident investigation
agency, the Interstate Aviation Committee, will also take part in
the investigation.

The crash is believed to have been caused by a fire in one of
the engines, Armenian state television reported, without naming
sources. Meanwhile, Iran’s English-language Press TV said that
the aircraft had attempted an emergency landing due to a technical
malfunction, but the plane burst into flames and crashed.

All the equipment installed on the plane, produced some 15 years ago,
was in line with the regulations of the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), Pogosyan said.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has cut short his working visit to
the northern Armenian city of Spitak and returned to Yerevan.

A number of foreign heads of state, including Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev, have offered their condolences.

"I’m deeply shock by the report that Armenian nationals were killed
when a plane crashed en route from Yerevan to Tehran. I ask you
to accept my deepest condolences in connection with this tragedy,"
the Russian president said in a letter to Sargsyan.

Thursday has been declared a nationwide day of mourning in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress