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Plane crashes in Iran, with all 66 people on board feared dead

The plane was flying from Tehran to the southern city of Yasuj.

Updated 11.30am 

A PASSENGER PLANE has crashed in the Iranian mountains, with all 66 people on board feared dead.

An airline spokesman initially told state television that all passengers had been killed but this statement was later retracted.

The ATR-72, used for short-distance regional flying, went down near the remote mountain town of Semirom, some 620km south of the capital, Tehran, the semi-official Fars news agency said.

Fars said the plane was flying from Tehran to the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, about 780km south of Tehran.

Authorities said the plane was flown by Aseman Airlines, a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area, which was quite foggy at the time of the crash. Authorities said they would be investigating.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran’s commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes.

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    Mute Fabiana Rea
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    Jan 12th 2015, 8:59 AM

    Terrible, RIP to the staff and passengers on board. Very scary.

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    Mute Philip Nicholls
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    Jan 12th 2015, 9:07 AM

    as they’ve found the first of the two recorders at least we can hope now to find out why the flight crashed and take steps to prevent a repetition.

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    Mute Joe Desbonnet
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    Jan 12th 2015, 10:33 AM

    This talk of exploding due to pressure (at sea level) seems like BS to me. If anything it may have imploded.. but I doubt the ~ 300mb cabin pressure difference between cruise alt and sea level could do that on its own.

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    Mute CreditTiger
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    Jan 12th 2015, 10:46 AM

    Just leave it at ‘ploded’ so!

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    Mute Mick Rooney
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    Jan 12th 2015, 1:21 PM

    The Indonesian Transport Ministry is already disputing the claims this official made and that the damage occured when the aircraft hit the water, not before.

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    Mute Eric Cantona
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    Jan 12th 2015, 1:26 PM

    They probably just mean the plane came apart on impact, ie it was intact when it hit the water and did not come apart in the air ruling out midair explosions etc,

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    Mute Mick Rooney
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    Jan 12th 2015, 2:57 PM

    Joe, cabin pressurisation in an aircraft doesn’t happen at the flick of switch – meaning, the cabin just doesn’t suddenly go to 10-11psi for crusing altitude the moment the aircraft leaves the ground. It’s a gradual automated process fed by the engine compressors with a safety valve at the rear of the aircraft. As an aircraft rises the air gets thinner and the pressure in the cabin gradually rises to make the air comfortable to breathe. The system works in reverse on descent. So the argument that the aircraft would still be at crusing altitude pressure (even in a rapid descent) at sea level is nonsence. It looks to me like the Director of Search & Rescue cited in the article got his information from salvage crews at the scene, not investigators. The investigation doesn’t begin until parts of the aircraft are forensically examined and the information from the black box recorders is downloaded.

    If explosive depressurisation forces occured here (and as yet we don’t know it did), then it happened at altitude, not sea level (due to violent forces acting on the aircraft or hull failure). The limited pictures of debris I’ve seen from the tail are jagged twists and tears consistent with catostrophic impact. Some of the rear windows and surrounds on the tail are still intact. That’s not consistent with massive depressure blast. Compare the tail debris recovered from QZ8501 with MH17 and you will notice the differences.

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