At Least 132 Die as Airliner, Iranian Military Jet Collide : Disaster: Passengers were bound from Tehran for Shiite Muslim holy city in nation’s northeast.

An Iranian-chartered airliner with 132 people on board collided with an air force jet after takeoff Monday from Tehran’s main airport and exploded in a fireball as it plummeted into a military compound.

There were no survivors on the jetliner, and the warplane’s crew of two is believed to have been killed.

The Russian-piloted TU-154 jetliner was bound for the northeastern Shiite Muslim holy city of Mashhad, and most of its 119 Iranian passengers were pilgrims. The crew of 13 included the Russian pilot and four other Russians. No other foreigners were on board, aviation authorities said.

The Russian-designed Sukhoi fighter was taking part in an exercise to mark Air Force Day, when 14 years ago its command pledged allegiance to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution--the first military branch force to do so.

Authorities gave no information about the crew of the fighter, but Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the pilot and co-pilot also were believed killed.

Agency reporter Sattar Oudi, who saw the accident as he drove to work at Mehrabad Airport, said the jetliner was about 1,300 feet high when the collision occurred at 10:15 a.m.

“The airplane was just taking off and the fighter came from the opposite side and the two collided,” he told the Associated Press.

The plane fell in an empty lot inside a compound of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards near Karaj, 25 miles from the center of the capital.

There were no casualties on the ground, sentries at the base said.

The guards refused to allow non-military personnel into the fenced compound, turning back even forensic experts. The guards said the wreckage of Flight 962 and the bodies were strewn over a 600-square-yard open area inside their compound.

A group of anxious relatives gathered at the airport, most of them weeping into their hands.

Mehrabad Airport serves passenger and military aircraft. Its parallel runways can endanger civilian flights when warplanes are on maneuvers.

Pilots have complained frequently of near-collisions, especially during Iran’s 1980-88 war with Iraq when military flights were numerous.

Mashhad, a city of 500,000, lies near Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The tomb there of a founding imam of Shiite Islam is one of Iran’s most important religious shrines.

Mashhad is also the base of 10 Russian airliners under lease to Iran Air Tour, a subsidiary of the national carrier, Iran Air. The leased planes are manned by Russian pilots, maintenance crews and cabin attendants.