39 killed in Iranian military plane crash

TEHRAN: An Iranian military plane crashed shortly after takeoff at Tehran's Mehrabad airport early on Monday killing all 39 people on board, including 30 members of the Revolutionary Guards, police said.

High ranking Iranian police commander, Eskandar Moemeni, told the Fars news agency that three people who initially survived the crash of the Antonov 74 died on their way to hospital.

"An engine failure and veering from the runway resulted in the crash," he said.

The chief commander of the Islamic republic's Revolutionary Guards, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, did not rule out sabotage but added it was "too soon to elaborate on the cause of the crash until the investigations are over."

A Revolutionary Guards commander in charge of security of Iranian airports, Ahmad Haghtalab, said the black box which could help determine the cause of the accident had still to be recovered.

"(The plane) crashed at the end of the runway, at 7:12 local time and burst into flames," he said.

The director of the airport confirmed to state television that there had been no survivors. He said the plane was heading for Shiraz in the south of Iran.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are the Islamic regime's ideological army.

Mehrabad international airport is used for civil and military purposes. It is situated in a western district of the capital. The accident was the sixth military plane crash since 2003 in which a total of 450 people -- not all of them military staff -- died.

Around a week ago, six people were killed in a military helicopter crash in the central Iranian town of Najafabad near the ancient city of Isfahan. No further details about the accident were given.

In January 2006, an Iranian military plane crashed in the northwest of the country, killing all 13 people aboard including a top military officer.

The plane, a Falcon, came down near Orumiyeh, near the Turkish border; among the dead were Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards, and seven senior officers.

The Falcon crash came barely a month after a decrepit Iranian military transport plane, a Lockheed C-130, crashed into the foot of a high-rise housing block after suffering engine failure. The aircraft was bought from the US before the 1979 revolution.

A total of 108 people were killed, the majority journalists who were assigned to cover a military war game.

In October 2003, an Iranian air force F-4 fighter crashed while on a training flight west of the capital, killing both its crew.

More than 300 people were killed aboard an Iranian troop transport aircraft when it crashed shortly before landing in the southern Iranian province of Kerman February 2003, in one of the world's worst air accidents.

The Russian-built Ilyushin plane was carrying 284 elite Revolutionary Guards and 18 crew on a flight from the southeastern town of Zahedan when it came down near the southern city of Kerman.

Iran's civil and military fleet is made up of ancient aircraft in terrible condition due to their age and lack of maintenance. The Iranian regime is barred by sanctions from buying American Boeing planes or European Airbus craft when they include a significant number of US parts.

Recently, American officials announced that they decided to allow selling spare parts for the aged Iranian civilian fleet.