46 Die as Plane Crashes in Iran

A commuter plane carrying Ukrainian and Russian aerospace scientists crashed in central Iran on Monday, killing all 46 people aboard, Iranian officials said.

The passengers were traveling to Iran to witness the maiden flight of a joint Ukrainian- and Iranian-built passenger plane, according to a report on state-run television.

The plane crashed near the town of Baqerabad while preparing to make a scheduled landing at its destination, an airport near the central Iranian city of Esfahan, about 220 miles south of Tehran.

Reza Jafarzadeh, a spokesman at the state-owned Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries in Esfahan, said all aboard were killed.

Mykola Melnikov, a duty officer at the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry, said the plane that crashed was probably a Ukrainian-built Antonov-140.

Iranian TV said the scientists were traveling to Iran to attend a test flight Wednesday of the Iran-140 passenger plane being built in Esfahan. The plane is based on the Ukrainian-designed Antonov-140, a twin-propeller turboprop used for short-range commuter flights.

It was not immediately clear to whom the plane belonged.

Melnikov said the plane took off from Kharkiv, Ukraine, early Monday afternoon with a delegation of officials from the Kharkiv aircraft plant, which built the plane in which they were flying.

Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said the plane was traveling from Ukraine to Esfahan, stopping en route to refuel in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon. No passengers boarded or got off the plane there.

The Antonov-140 is a short-range transport aircraft first flown in 1997 and designed to carry 46 to 52 people. Parts for it are made at the Esfahan aviation industries plant with Ukrainian assistance.

On Feb. 12, 119 passengers and crew died aboard Iranian Airlines Flight 956 when it slammed into a mountain near the city of Khorramabad, about 230 miles southwest of Tehran.