Plane catches fire at Tehran airport: state TV
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.