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Plane catches fire at Tehran airport: state TV

Plane catches fire at Tehran airport state TV
Plane catches fire at Tehran airport: state TV

2019-03-20 00:00:00 - Source: Baghdad Post

An airliner caught fire on landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad

airport on Tuesday but all 100 passengers were evacuated without injury, the

head of Iran’s emergency department said on state television, according to Reuters.

Pir-Hossein Kolivand said the fire broke out after the

aircraft’s landing gear did not open properly, and was later brought under

control.

The airplane was a Fokker 100 belonging to Iran Air, the

Fars news agency reported.

The pilot was not able to open the back wheels of the plane

and circled the airport attempting to open all the wheels before landing the

plane on its body, according to Fars.

The plane was flying from Qeshm Island in the Gulf to

Tehran, according to the IRIB news agency. A picture posted by IRIB showed a

plane on a runway with white smoke streaming from the back.

IRIB quoted Reza Jafarzadeh, the head of public relations at

Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization as saying the plane had 24 passengers and

nine crew. It did not give any explanation for the discrepancy in the figures.

Iran has suffered a string of plane and helicopter crashes

over the past few decades. Tehran says US sanctions have long prevented it from

buying new aircraft or spare parts from the West to modernize its fleet.





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