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Iranian military plane crashes; 119 dead
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-06 19:37
An Iranian military transport plane crashed into a
10-story apartment building in the suburbs of the capital Tuesday, killing at
least 119 people, according to state media and Tehran's mayor. All 94 passengers
and crew of the plane were killed, Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told The
Associated Press.
All passengers and crew on board an Iranian
plane that crashed on Tuesday were killed when it hit a 10-storey building
in Tehran, a police spokesman told state radio.
[Reuters] |
Tehran state radio said that of the building's residents, 25 people were
killed and 15 were injured.
Firefighters managed to put out the fire in the building, which was damaged
and charred but still standing. The plane's wreckage was scattered around the
building, which police cordoned off.
"It was like an earthquake," said Reza Sadeqi, a 25-year-old merchant, who
saw the plane hit the building. "The force of the crash threw me about 3 meters
(9 feet) inside my shop.
"I felt the heat of the fire caused by the crash. It was like being in hell,"
he said.
The C-130 aircraft struck the building while trying to return to Tehran's
Mehrabad airport, state television reported. The building is in the Towhid
residential complex, a series of high-rise apartment buildings for army
personnel.
Thousands of people gathered at the crash site. Many screamed for fear that
their relatives had been killed.
The plane, which belonged to the army air force, carried 84 passengers and 10
crew members, Iranian television reported. The official Islamic Republic News
Agency said the passengers were journalists who were going to cover a military
maneuver in southern Iran.
The flight had taken off from Mehrabad airport en route to Bandar Abbas, a
port city in southern Iran. The plane crashed due to a technical failure as it
was trying to return to Tehran and make an emergency landing, the television
said.
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