Sunday, February 18, 2018

Aseman Airlines, ATR-72-212, EP-ATS, Flight EP-3704: Fatal accident occurred February 18, 2018 in Semirom, Zagros Mountains

March 04, 2018 – Searchers found the black box from Aseman Airlines passenger plane almost two weeks after it crashed in a mountainous region in the south of the country, killing everyone on board. The following photos show the search team taking down the black box from the top of Mount Dena in Zagros Mountain Range.









A spokesperson for Iran Civil Aviation Organization said on Monday that the French delegation will arrive in Tehran tonight for assessment of the plane crash.

The 7-strong delegation would include three experts from a commission on aircraft accident investigation and four others from the plane manufacturer company, the spokesman added.

The ATR plane of Aseman Airlines with 66 passengers, including six crew, flying from capital Tehran to the city of Yasouj, disappeared from radar screens some 20 minutes after take-off on Sunday morning.

The aircraft is believed to have crashed into Mount Dena in southwest Iran.

A widespread search operation is underway to find remains of the doomed plane.

Officials say the foggy weather and fall of snow has hampered aerial rescue efforts in the Padena mountainous area, where the plane was last detected.

The twin-engine turboprop, used for short flight routes, is a product of the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR.

Original article can be found here ➤  https://www.tasnimnews.com


Captain Hojat Foulad, Aseman Airlines, Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212, EP-ATS, crashed today with 66 people on board the flight from Tehran to Yasuj. Captain Hojat Foulad had saved the lives of all passengers and crew on board the same flight in 2013 when the plane crash landed with engine failure.








TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A delegation of French aviation experts will travel to Iran on Tuesday to assess issues surrounding an ATR plane crash that Iranian officials say has killed all 66 people on board.

The Aseman Airlines flight from Tehran disappeared from radar screens on Sunday 50 minutes into its journey to the southwestern city of Yasuj. It is believed to have gone down in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom. 

Helicopters and mountain rescue personnel from the armed forces and the Red Crescent, as well as local volunteers, were involved in the search, although no one was expected to have survived the crash, state television reported

“Five units started the search operation in early hours of the morning, in -16 degrees (Celsius, 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit),” a local Red Crescent official was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency. Military reconnaissance drones were also searching the area. 

“We are facing a total enigma. We do not know anything about the crash,” Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency shortly after his arrival in Semirom.

Iran has asked European countries and China to help the search operation with their satellite imagery, the deputy head of the Iranian Space Agency, Mojtaba Saradeghi, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. 

The twin-engined turboprop ATR 72 was just over 24 years old. According to data cited by the Flight Safety Foundation’s aviation-safety.net website, it had been restored to service just three months ago after being in storage for six years.

Planemaker ATR said the cause of the accident was not yet known. Based in the French city of Toulouse, ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo. 

Iran has suffered several plane crashes in the past few decades. Tehran blames U.S. sanctions for preventing it from importing new aircraft or spare parts.

A deal with world powers on Iran’s nuclear program has lifted some of those sanctions, opening the way for Iranian airlines to update their fleets.

Aseman signed a deal last year to buy at least 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets. National carrier Iran Air has ordered 80 planes from Boeing and 100 from Airbus.

A Boeing 727 plane crashed in northwestern Iran in 2011, killing 78 people, and a Caspian Airlines Tupolev bound for Armenia crashed in 2009, killing 168.

In February 2003, an Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew. 

Original article can be found here ➤  https://www.reuters.com



Captain HojjatAllah Foolad and Kaveh Khalili, First Officer 


Alireza Jamei moments before boarding today's Aseman Air flight from Tehran to Yasuj.





All 66 people on board a passenger plane that crashed in a mountainous region of southern Iran Sunday are presumed dead, according to the airline.

The Aseman Airlines plane was flying from Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasuj when it disappeared 50 minutes into the flight, according to a post on the airline's Instagram account.

The flight, which departed at 7:55 a.m. local time (11.25 p.m. ET Saturday), crashed in Kohangan village, 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Semirom town, authorities told Iran's Fars News Agency.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, expressed his condolences to the victims and their families, ordering officials to spare no efforts in their rescue operation, reported the state-run Islamic News Agency (IRNA).

The Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212 hit the Dena Mountains, the report said.

The 66 people on board included 60 passengers, two flight attendants, two pilots and two members of security forces.

Twenty rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site, with a helicopter earlier forced to turn back due to bad weather.

"This is a snow-covered mountainous area, much like the Rockies in America or the European Alps," CNN's Senior International Correspondent Sam Kiley said. "Any rescue operation will depend entirely on the weather."

Twenty rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site, with a helicopter earlier forced to turn back due to bad weather.

"This is a snow-covered mountainous area, much like the Rockies in America or the European Alps," CNN's Senior International Correspondent Sam Kiley said. "Any rescue operation will depend entirely on the weather."

Story, video and photos ➤ https://www.cnn.com



Ilia & Taha Daneshi, the children of Dr. & Mrs.  Abdulhadi Daneshi, were on board today's plane along with their mother.


Crisis meeting held in Yasuj airport. In this image you see six individuals looking at their mobile phones and one person (L) completely asleep.  Not even one has a paper and pen in hand with a plan.  This is Iran's regime.


An Iranian passenger plane carrying 66 people crashed Sunday in a remote mountainous area in Iran, killing all those aboard.

The Aseman Airlines flight was en route from Tehran to Yasuj, a small city in southern Iran, when it disappeared from the radar at around 8:50 a.m. local time, a spokesman for the carrier told state TV, adding that all on board were presumed dead. It was carrying 60 passengers and six crew, he said.

Iranian carriers at times have struggled with poor safety records, hobbled by a lack of access to spare parts and new planes for aging fleets because of yearslong Western sanctions.

The crash Sunday also marked a setback for aviation security globally. The incident marks the second major fatal accident this month after the global airline industry avoided fatalities in commercial jetliner operations during all of 2017. A Russian plane crashed on Feb. 11, killing all 71 people aboard.

Iranian emergency crews had yet to reach the crash site in the central Isfahan province by midday, an emergency-response official told state media. Bad weather prevented helicopters from flying there, and emergency crews were trying to reach the area by road.

The plane was manufactured by ATR, which makes aircraft for regional flights, Reza Jafarzadeh, the spokesman for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, told state TV.

ATR, a joint venture of European aerospace giant Airbus SE and Italy’s Leonardo SpA had no immediate comment. Toulouse-based ATR last year began delivering new planes to Iran under a 20-aircraft deal with flag carrier Iran Air.

The Aseman Air plane that crashed was built in late 1993, Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, told state TV. He denied that the craft’s age played a role, and said the authorities wouldn’t be able to determine what caused the crash until they retrieved its black box.

The French accident office, the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses, Sunday said it was dispatching a team of crash investigators to help in the Iranian probe. France typically assists in crashes involving planes made in the country, though Iran has the lead role in the probe.

While Iran’s aviation industry has long been held back by international sanctions imposed over the country’s disputed nuclear program, Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers appeared poised to reverse that.

The deal gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for new curbs on its nuclear program, and allowed its airlines to ink major deals with the Chicago-headquartered Boeing Co. and Europe’s Airbus, although most of the aircraft involved have yet to be delivered.

In June of last year, Boeing signed a final purchase agreement with Aseman for up to 60 of its 737 Max planes that could be worth up to $6 billion at list price.

But those deals could be derailed if the White House walks away from the nuclear agreement. President Donald Trump, long an opponent of the Obama-era accord, has sought to undermine it, and is pressuring Congress and European allies to address Iran’s continued development of ballistic missiles, among other concerns.

Domestically in Iran, the crash may be a setback for hard-line critics of President Hassan Rouhani, some of whom have argued that Iran doesn’t need new aircraft, which they say is the only significant result from the nuclear deal Mr. Rouhani’s administration negotiated.

The last fatal crash involving an Iranian carrier was in 2014, when a Sepahan Airlines passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing 40 people. A flight operated by Aseman Airlines crashed earlier the same year near Kish Island in the south, killing four crew members.

Original article can be found here ➤ https://www.wsj.com



Azad University professors who lost their lives in today's fatal accident.


An Iranian passenger plane with 66 people on board has crashed in central Iran during a flight from Tehran to the city of Yasuj, according to Iranian news media reports. 

A spokesperson for Iran Aseman Airlines told state TV that Sunday's air crash killed all 66 people on board.

The plane crashed in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom, the news agency ISNA quoted Mojtaba Khaledi, emergency services spokesperson, as saying.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it had deployed to the area, which was quite foggy at the time of the crash.

State-run PressTV said the Iran Aseman Airlines flight was carrying 60 passengers and six crew members.

Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country and also flies internationally.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop, is used for short-distance regional flying. Authorities said they would be investigating the crash.

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

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

Speaking to Al Jazeera from London, David Learmount, aviation safety specialist and former pilot, said: "Weather in the mountains where the plane crashed was pretty bad.

"It looks as if when the aircraft was carrying out its initial descent towards its destination, it was in the wrong position and it hit mountains.

"Basically, it's a failure of navigation. An airplane hitting mountains in cloud is like a ship hitting rocks."

According to Learmount, the jet that crashed was "a very well-tested airplane [model]", but the carrier was not unfamiliar to accidents in Iran's difficult terrain.

"The Iran Aseman Airlines flies through lot of difficult terrain of the country. It is more exposed to risk just by the virtue of the country that Iran is."

Original article can be found here ➤ http://www.aljazeera.com





TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, killing all 66 people on board, state media reported.

The Aseman Airlines ATR-72 went down near the remote mountain town of Semirom, some 390 miles south of the capital, Tehran, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on the flight were killed. The plane carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members. Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.

Fars said the plane was flying from Tehran to the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 485 miles south of the Iranian capital. Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 1,440-feet tall.

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.

Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

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.

Original article can be found here ➤ https://www.nbcnews.com







Tehran, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, killing all 66 people on board, state media reported.

An Aseman Airlines ATR-72 went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometers (485 miles) south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on Flight No. 3704 were killed. The plane carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members.

Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported. Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 440-meters (1,440-feet) tall.

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website. It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating. Locals described hearing the crash, though no one had found the crash site yet, according to state TV.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., said it had no immediate information about the crash. The manufacturer specializes in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

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 worth tens of billions of dollars. U.S. politicians have expressed concern about the airplane sales to Iran. President Donald Trump remains skeptical of the atomic accord overall and has refused to re-certify it, putting the deal in question.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world. However, Western analysts are skeptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536-million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

5 comments:

  1. This is a terrible tragedy, however Iran has diverted ten of billions of dollars to illegal nuclear weapons and ICBM development, while sponsoring worldwide terrorism. Iran could otherwise be flying sparkling new commercial aircraft with state-of-the-art maintenance. It's not "because of yearslong Western sanctions." It is an evil regime, depriving it citizenry of the basics in order to spread terror.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Inflight videos supplied - suggest Iranian commercial pilots crossing forbidding terrain at dangerously low altitudes, just barely skimming over the jagged mountain tops!

    To me, it suggests that Iranian IFR operations, and weather capable planes, are NOT being used, WAY more than they should!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The cause of this disgraceful occurrence and overall abysmal record is irresponsible management that put an unworthy plane in the air and an endemically corrupt regime that enables it.

    Same reasons Russian air is dangerous. I saw the corruption up close and it is immediately apparent why their planes crash. When bribing the baggage handlers to record underweight bags is routine, the pilots never have a good handle on takeoff weight. As but one example.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Trump has shown he can bomb Russians in Syria while playing golf. Obama could play golf ... while he played golf.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I guess it just stunned me reading about this Iranian plane crash with 65 people on board killed. The aircraft was grounded for eight years and for years Iran was barred from buying necessary airplane parts due to United States sanctions from its nuclear program. Iran's nuclear accord with world powers allows it to get those parts as well as tens of billions of new aircraft.

    The whole world is watching.

    ReplyDelete