A Ukraine Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on Wednesday (January 8th) shortly after takeoff from Tehran International Airport to Kiev, Iranian news agency Irna reported on Wednesday (January 8th).
One hundred and seventy passengers and crew perished in the crash, said the chief of the Iranian Red Crescent. "Obviously, it is impossible that passengers" from flight PS-752 Tehran-Kiev "are alive". At least
رئیس سازمان امداد و نجات جمعیت هلال احمر درباره # سقوط_هواپیمای_اوکراینی: بعید میدانم کسی در این حادثا. خوشبختانه به منازل مسکونی خسارتی وارد نشده است. pic.twitter.com/FSdTXNsfZB
- هلال احمر ایران (@Iranian_RCS) January 8, 2020"All the passengers are dead," headlines the official Irna agency. Quoting a spokesperson for the Imam-Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, she mentioned 176 people on board the aircraft: 167 passengers and nine crew members.
Iranian civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said on public television that rescue teams were dispatched to an area near the capital's airport where the plane crashed and caught fire.
The precise causes of the accident, which took place against a backdrop of heightened tensions in the region when Iran carried out strikes against Iraqi bases housing US forces overnight, remain unknown. The American company Boeing reported, in a press release, to be informed of the articles of the Iranian press reporting an accident and to gather additional information.
With AFP and Reuters
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