66 killed in Iran plane crash

At least 66 people were killed after a commercial plane crashed in a mountainous area in central Iran, according to local media reports.

The Aseman Airline’s Tehran-Yasuj flight, which took off from Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on Sunday morning, disappeared from the radars within 50 minutes and crashed near Semirom city in the Padena mountain in southern Isfahan province, the chief of Iran’s emergency services said.

Witnesses told local media the plane looked like it was trying to make an emergency landing before it crashed.

A spokesperson for the Iranian emergency organisation said that rescue choppers have been deployed to the crash site and added it was not possible to send ambulances to the mountainous area.

Aseman Airlines is the third largest carrier in Iran and is based in the capital Tehran.

Image: Aseman Airlines is the third largest carrier in Iran. Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters