Image copyright Mehrad Watson Image caption Aseman operates the ATR 72-500

Sixty-six people are feared to have been killed in a passenger plane crash in the Zagros mountains in Iran.

The Aseman Airlines plane, en route from Tehran to the south-western city of Yasuj, came down near the city of Semirom in Isfahan province.

The Red Crescent deployed search and rescue teams to the site. The airline has retracted a statement saying definitively that all aboard were dead.

Flight EP3704 left Tehran at 04:30 GMT, and crashed about an hour later.

The aircraft, a twin-engine turboprop, came down on Dena Mountain, 22km (14 miles) from Yasuj, news channel Irinn reported.

Sixty passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot were on board.

The airline initially said everyone had been killed, but said later: "Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane."

Bad weather, including fog and heavy snow, has hampered rescue efforts. Emergency teams have had to travel to the crash site by land rather than using a helicopter.

Passengers' relatives have gathered at a mosque near Tehran's Mehrabad airport, according to Reuters news agency.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Grieving relatives gathered at Mehrabad airport in Tehran

"I can't bring myself to believe it," said one woman whose husband was on board.

One man told Tabnak news website that he had missed the flight.

Showing an unused ticket as proof, he said: "God has been really kind to me but I am so sad from the bottom of my heart for all those dear ones who lost their lives."

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani expressed sympathy for all involved, saying, in a statement, that the incident brought "great grief and sorrow".

Iran has suffered several aviation accidents in recent years and has an ageing aircraft fleet.

The country has struggled to obtain spare parts to maintain its planes in the face of international sanctions imposed to curb its nuclear programme.

Those sanctions have been mostly lifted under a 2015 deal between Iran and the US alongside several other powers.

Aseman, Iran's third largest airline, signed a contract with Boeing last year to buy 30 of its latest medium-range 737s.

The crashed plane, a French-Italian-made ATR 72-500, was 25 years old, Iran's civil aviation organisation said.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also expressed "deep sympathy" for relatives of those on board, saying the accident "saddened the hearts".

Recent major air crashes in Iran

2014

August - Sepahan airways Antonov carrying 40 crashes shortly after take-off from Tehran, killing 39 - engine failure blamed

2011

January - IranAir Boeing 727 breaks up on landing in snowstorm in north-west, killing 78

2009

Caspian Airlines Tupolev bound for Armenia from Tehran catches fire shortly after take-off killing all 168 on board

Major air disasters timeline

2017 safest year for air travel

Air France jet engine fails mid-flight</s>A passenger plane crashed in a mountainous region in southern Iran on Sunday, killing all 65 people on board, an airline spokesman told Iran state television.

Aseman Airlines Flight No. 3704 came down near the city of Yasuj, about 485 miles south of Tehran, the airline said. The ATR-72 — a twin-engine turboprop — was near its destination when it crashed into Mount Dena while carrying 59 passengers and six crew members, Iran Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV.

State-run IRNA news agency initially reported that 66 people were on board.

"After searching the area, we learned that unfortunately ... our dear passengers had lost their lives," Tabatabai said.

Rescue helicopters heading to the scene couldn’t land near the crash site because of heavy fog, Reuters reported. Emergency workers were trying to reach the area by land, the semi-official Mehr news agency said. Other weather-related issues prevented rescuers from finding the plane.

“Heavy snow is making it difficult for rescuers to find the site of the crash,” a TV reporter stated.

The plane disappeared from radar screens about 50 minutes after departing from Tehran, according to local media reports.

It’s unclear what caused the crash.

The aircraft only began flights months ago after it was “grounded” for seven years. The airline posted a photo of the plane on Instagram saying it would be up and running after repairs were done and safety checks and tests were conducted. It’s unclear what caused the aircraft to be grounded for an extended time.

Iran Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally. The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed personnel to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating.

The carrier, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website. It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., said it had no immediate information about the crash. The manufacturer specializes in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars. U.S. politicians have expressed concern about the airplane sales to Iran. President Trump remains skeptical of the atomic accord overall and has refused to re-certify it, putting the deal in question.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world. However, Western analysts are skeptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536 million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>DUBAI (Reuters) - All 65 passengers and crew were feared dead in a plane crash in central Iran on Sunday after the domestic flight came down in bad weather in a mountainous region.

A spokesman for Iranian carrier Aseman Airlines had told state television everyone was killed, but the airline then issued a statement saying it could not reach the crash site and could not “accurately and definitely confirm” everyone died.

The airline had also initially said 60 passengers and six crew were on board the twin-engined turboprop ATR 72 that was flying to the southwestern city of Yasuj. But it later said there were a total of 65 people on board, as one passenger had missed the flight.

The Aseman-operated plane crashed near the town of Semirom after taking off from Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told ISNA news agency.

As night approached, bad weather prevented helicopters searching the probable crash site but emergency workers were scouring the mountainous area by land, the television said.

“It is getting colder and darker and still no sign of the plane,” said a television reporter accompanying rescue teams searching snow-covered areas in Mount Dena which has more than 40 peaks higher than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

Media reports said the plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport in the southwest of the capital. It mainly handles domestic flights.

“I kept telephoning all morning but they (the relative) wouldn’t answer. So I called my brother and he said they will get here, it (the plane) is not behind schedule yet,” a young woman told a reporter for state television.

“I told him it is raining here. He said no (meaning, don’t worry). He called later and said the plane had crashed.”

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani issued messages of condolences. The president asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.

Iran has suffered several plane crashes in the past few decades. Tehran says U.S. sanctions have long prevented it from buying new aircraft or spare parts from the West. The crashed ATR was 25 years old, officials said.

A deal with world powers on Iran’s nuclear programme has lifted some of those sanctions, opening the way for Iranian airlines to update their creaking fleets.

Aseman signed a deal last year to buy at least 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets. National carrier IranAir has ordered 80 planes from Boeing and 100 from Airbus.

Based in the southern French city of Toulouse, ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo

Earlier air disasters include the crash of a Boeing 727 passenger plane in 2011 which killed 78 people in the northwest of Iran, and the 2009 crash of a Caspian Airlines Tupolev aircraft bound for Armenia which killed all 168 people on board.

One of Iran’s worst air accidents happened in February 2003 when an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew.</s>Tehran, Iran (AP) — An Iranian airplane brought back into service only months ago after being grounded for seven years crashed Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, and officials feared all 65 people on board were killed.

The crash of the Aseman Airlines ATR-72 was yet another fatal aviation disaster for Iran, which for years was barred from buying necessary airplane parts due to Western sanctions over its contested nuclear program.

Its nuclear accord with world powers allows it to get those parts and the country has made deals worth tens of billions of dollars for new aircraft. However, President Donald Trump’s refusal to recertify the deal has injected uncertainty into those sales while Iranians still fly in aging aircraft.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometers (485 miles) south of the capital, Tehran, where it took off.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash, although weather was severe. Dense fog, high winds and heavy snow in the Zagros Mountains made it impossible for rescue crews in helicopters to reach the site, state television reported.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on board Flight EP3704 were killed. It had 59 passengers and six crew members, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday night, lowering the toll to 65 from an initially reported 66.

“After searching the area, we learned that unfortunately … our dear passengers had lost their lives,” Tabatabai said.

Both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani offered their condolences.

Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 4,400 meters (14,435 feet) tall. The plane’s last signal, at 0555 GMT (12:35 a.m. EST), showed it at 16,975 feet and descending, according to airplane-tracking website FlightRadar24. The pilot was in contact with the tower 14 miles from the airport, state TV said.

One previous passenger on the route posted a video Sunday showing that the flight typically comes in just over the mountain peaks. Aeronautical charts for the airport warn pilots to keep an altitude of 15,000 feet in the area. The airport itself is at nearly 6,000 feet.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Locals described hearing the crash, but no one has reached the crash site due to weather.

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran’s civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran and is Iran’s third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air. It specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country but also flies internationally, although it is banned in the European Union over safety concerns.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24. The ATR-72 that crashed Sunday, with the tail number EP-ATS, had been built in 1993, Aseman Airlines CEO Ali Abedzadeh told state TV.

On Instagram, Aseman Airlines highlighted the doomed aircraft in October, saying it had been “grounded” for seven years but would be “repaired and will be operational after checking and testing.” It wasn’t clear what led to the grounding, though Iran only recently regained access to the airplane parts market after the nuclear deal.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo SpA., said it had no immediate information about the crash.

Aseman Airlines has had other major crashes. In October 1994, a twin-propeller Fokker F-28 1000 commuter plane operated by the airline crashed near Natanz, 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Tehran, killing 66 people. An Aseman Airlines-chartered flight in August 2008, flown by an Itek Air Boeing 737, crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing 74 people.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran’s commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536 million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

Home to 80 million people, Iran is one of the world’s last untapped aviation markets. However, Western analysts are skeptical there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

Iran has suffered a series of major aviation disasters in recent decades. Its last major crash happened in January 2011, when an Iran Air Boeing 727 broke to pieces on impact while trying an emergency landing in a snowstorm in northwestern Iran, killing at least 77 people.

In July 2009, a Russian-made jetliner crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran, killing all 168 on board. A Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in southeastern Iran in February 2003, killing 302 people.

In February 1993, an Iranian airliner with 132 people aboard collided with an air force jet after takeoff from Tehran’s main airport, killing everyone on the two aircraft. And in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the Strait of Hormuz mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people aboard.</s>Iranian investigators have located the site of Sunday’s plane crash that killed all 65 people on board, state TV reported Monday.

Bad weather had thwarted a recovery mission on Sunday, when a rescue helicopter was forced to turn back.

It was not immediately clear if search and rescue teams were able to reach the crash site on Monday.

The Aseman Airlines plane was flying from Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasuj when it disappeared 50 minutes into the flight.

The flight, which departed at 7:55 a.m. local time (11.25 p.m. ET Saturday), crashed in Kohangan village, 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Semirom town, authorities told Iran’s Fars News Agency .

Earlier reports said 66 people had died in the crash, but one would-be passenger did not board the flight, Aseman Airlines confirmed Sunday.

Twenty search and rescue teams and a drone were deployed in the aftermath of the crash.

On Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani expressed their condolences to the victims and their families, ordering officials to spare no efforts in their rescue operation.

The ATR aircraft, a twin-engine turboprop typically used for short-distance regional flights, hit the Dena Mountains.

Aseman’s public relations chief, Mohammad Tabatabaie, told Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA that until the wreckage was recovered it was not possible to confirm all deaths.

“Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane,” he said.

Those aboard included 59 passengers, two flight attendants, two pilots and two members of security forces.

Aseman Airlines posted an image of the plane involved in the crash on its Instagram account.

Pilot Hojatollah Fooled successfully landed a similar plane after an engine problem in 2013, the airline said in an Instagram post.

It described Fooled as “very experienced.”

“On a previous flight from Yasuj to Tehran in 2013 he had an issue where the second engine of the ATR72 went out,” said the post. “But he manged to land the plane safely at Yasuj airport.”

Several flights from Tehran were disrupted Sunday due to bad weather, according to IRNA.

And at Abadan International Airport in southwestern Iran, two domestic flights were canceled due to pollution, which reduced visibility range to two meters, IRNA added.</s>All 66 passengers and crew are believed to have been killed in a plane crash in central Iran on Sunday, an airline spokesman said.

Operated by Iranian carrier Aseman Airlines, the domestic flight came down in bad weather in a mountainous region near the town of Semirom after taking off from Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, news agency ISNA reported.

The ATR-made plane was on a flight to the southwestern city of Yasuj and a spokesman for the airline said there were 60 passengers and six crew aboard.

Rescue helicopters were unable to land at the probable crash site because of heavy fog, and emergency workers were searching the mountainous area by land, the television report said.

“Heavy snow is making it difficult for rescuers to find the site of the crash,” a television reporter accompanying rescue teams told state television.

Media reports said the twin-engined turboprop ATR 72 disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani issued messages of condolences, and the president asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.

Mehrabad is located in western Tehran and mainly functions as a domestic airport, although it also serves some international routes.

Iran has suffered several plane crashes in the past few decades. Tehran says US sanctions have long prevented it from buying new aircraft or spare parts from the West. The crashed ATR was 25 years old, officials said.

Based in the southern French city of Toulouse, ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo–Reuters</s>A commercial airliner has crashed in southern Iran, killing all 66 people aboard, an airline spokesman told Iran state television Sunday.

The plane carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members, Iran Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV.

Flight No. 3704 crashed near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 485 miles south of Tehran, the Iranian capital, the airline said.

The plane was identified as a model ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop model used for short-distance regional flying.

Rescue helicopters could not land in the crash area because of heavy fog, Reuters reported. Emergency workers were trying to reach the area by land, the semi-official Mehr news agency said.

The plane disappeared from radar screens about 50 minutes after take-off from Tehran, the Reuters report said.

Iran Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating.

Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 1,440 feet tall.

Iran Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website. It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., said it had no immediate information about the crash. The manufacturer specializes in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars. U.S. politicians have expressed concern about the airplane sales to Iran. President Donald Trump remains skeptical of the atomic accord overall and has refused to re-certify it, putting the deal in question.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world. However, Western analysts are skeptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536-million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.</s>Plane crashes in central Iran, all 65 people on board feared dead

All 65 passengers and crew are feared dead in a plane crash in central Iran after the domestic flight came down in bad weather in a mountainous region.

A spokesman for Iranian carrier Aseman Airlines had told state television everyone was killed, but the airline then issued a statement saying it could not reach the crash site and could not "accurately and definitely confirm" everyone died.

The airline had also initially said 60 passengers and six crew were on board the twin-engined turboprop ATR 72 that was flying to the south-western city of Yasuj. But it later said there were a total of 65 people on board, as one passenger had missed the flight.

The crash of the ATR-72 marks yet another fatal aviation disaster for Iran, which for years was barred from buying airplane parts for needed maintenance due to Western sanctions over its contested nuclear program.

The Aseman-operated plane crashed near the town of Semirom after taking off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told ISNA news agency.

As night approached, bad weather prevented helicopters searching the probable crash site but emergency workers were scouring the mountainous area by land, the television said.

"It is getting colder and darker and still no sign of the plane," said a television reporter accompanying rescue teams searching snow-covered areas in Mount Dena, which has more than 40 peaks higher than 4,000 metres.

Media reports said the plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport in the south-west of the capital.

The President asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.

Aircraft had been 'grounded' for seven years

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran and specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website.

The ATR-72 that crashed on Sunday had been built in 1993, Aseman Airlines chief executive Ali Abedzadeh told state TV.

On Instagram, Aseman Airlines highlighted the doomed aircraft in October, saying it had been "grounded" for seven years but would be "repaired and will be operational after checking and testing".

It wasn't clear what led to the grounding, though Iran only recently regained access to the airplane parts market after the nuclear deal.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo SpA, said it had no immediate information about the crash.



Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536-million ($677 million) sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft.

Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion ($3.79 billion) deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world.

However, Western analysts are sceptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

Iran has suffered a series of major aviation disasters in recent decades.

The last major crash in Iran happened in January 2011, when an Iran Air Boeing 727 broke to pieces on impact while trying an emergency landing in a snowstorm in north-western Iran, killing at least 77 people.

In July 2009, a Russian-made jetliner crashed in north-western Iran shortly after taking off from Tehran, killing all 168 on board.

A Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of south-eastern Iran in February 2003, killing 302 people.

In February 1993, an Iranian airliner with 132 people aboard collided with an air force jet after take off from Tehran's main airport, killing everyone on the two aircraft.

And in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the Strait of Hormuz mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people aboard.</s>Operated by Iranian carrier Aseman Airlines, the plane crashed near the town of Semirom after taking off from Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, news agency ISNA quoted emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi as saying.

The ATR-made plane was on a flight to the southwestern city of Yasuj and a spokesman for the airline said there were 60 passengers and six crew aboard.

Rescue helicopters were unable to land at the probable crash site because of heavy fog and emergency workers were searching the mountainous area by land, the television report said.

“Heavy snow is making it difficult for rescuers to find the site of the crash,” a television reporter accompanying rescue teams told state television.

Media reports said the twin-engined turboprop ATR 72 disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani issued messages of condolences and the president asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.</s>Sixty-six people have been killed in a passenger plane crash in Iran, airline company officials say.

The Aseman Airlines plane, en route from Tehran to the south-western city of Yasuj, came down in the Zagros mountains of central Iran.

The Red Crescent has deployed a search and rescue team to the site near the city of Semirom in Isfahan province.

The plane left Tehran at 05:00 local time (01:30 GMT) and disappeared from radar later.

A local official said bad weather had hampered a helicopter search.

“All emergency forces are on alert,” a spokesman said.

The plane is believed to be a 20-year-old ATR 72-500.

Reports say those on board were 60 passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot.

11 February: Russian Antonov An-148 crashes minutes after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport with 71 people on board. The plane was en route to the city of Orsk in the Ural mountains when it crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow.

No passenger jet crashes – safest year on record for commercial airlines

25 December: Russian military Tu-154 jet airliner crashes in the Black Sea, with the loss of all 92 passengers and crew.
An Iran Aseman Airlines ATR 72 commercial aircraft carrying 59 passengers and 6 crew members crashes near the Iranian town of Semirom. The airline reports that there are no survivors.