The World - News from June 20, 1989

A struggle between the co-pilot and an armed security guard caused an Afghan airliner to crash in eastern Iran with the loss of six lives, Tehran Radio said. The broadcast quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alireza Moayyeri as denying earlier Iranian and Afghan reports that the plane was hijacked and forced to Iran. Moayyeri, heading an official investigation into Sunday’s crash outside the city of Zabol near the southern Afghan border, said that the Ariana Afghan Airlines turboprop plane was carrying 39 people and that 33 survived. Moayyeri said a longstanding dispute between the guard and co-pilot led to the struggle, during which the co-pilot was shot and the pilot lost control of the plane.