An Iranian airliner on Friday burst into flames after skidding off the runway while landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, killing 29 people, the country's top aviation official said.
Updated at 10.30 pm
DUBAI: An Iranian airliner on Friday burst into flames after skidding off the runway while landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, killing 29 people, the country's top aviation official said.
State-run television had earlier said that 80 people had died in the accident involving the Russian-made Tupolev 154 jet, which was carrying 148 passengers from Bandar Abbas port to Mashhad.
The Iran Air Tours plane skidded off the runway and crashed into barriers before bursting into flames at 2.40 pm local time. State television had said one of the aircraft's tyres burst while landing but this could not be confirmed.
Nourallah Rezai Niaraki, chairman of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation, told television that the jet's "left wing hit the ground and caught fire".
The crash at Mashhad, home to Iran's holiest shrine, was the latest tragedy to hit the country's aviation industry, whose fleet comprises Soviet or old Western planes. The operations of the fleet have also been hit by sanctions imposed by the US after the revolution in 1979.
Television showed the plane lying flat without its wheels, with a large hole in the centre of its fuselage. Its cockpit was largely intact and officials said the crew had survived.
"As the plane was landing one of its tyres burst, forcing to it to swerve off the runway before hitting nearby barriers and bursting into flames," an airport official was quoted as saying.
"The pilots are trained to control the plane in such conditions so we have to find out what happened," he said.
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