'Many dead' in Iranian air crash

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

An Iranian passenger plane carrying 150 people has crashed in the north of the country, Irna state news agency says.

An Iranian official said the plane broke into pieces and all those on board are feared dead.

The plane, reportedly a Tupolev, came down in the Takestan region of Qazvin province, state television said.

The aircraft was travelling to Yerevan in Armenia, from the Iranian capital, Tehran, when it crashed, Iranian media reports say.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8151327.stm

[zbdent]

1. and the "Party of Life" cheers ...

[Dennis Donovan]

2. I've seen the video from the crash scene - I didn't see many flames...

...I'm wondering if it's a case of fuel starvation.:shrug:

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Not sure if 'fuel starvation's is a technical term

(eg for fuel line blockages) but I doubt it was 'running out of fuel' - this was 16 minutes after its take-off.

[sgsmith]

4. two ways of running out of gas

fuel exhaustion - the tank is empty. burned it all, or it drained out accidently
fuel starvation - the tank is not empty. fuel just can't get to the engine.

fuel exhaustion was the cause of the gimli glider. not enough fuel was loaded for the flight. mainly human error converting gallons and liters IIRC. fuel starvation may have been a cause in a recent crash in London. airplane landed short of the runway, and ice may have blocked the fuel filters, causing the engines to quit.

[formercia]

5. 168 killed in Iran plane crash

Source: AP


By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press Writer 11 mins ago

TEHRAN, Iran – An Russian-made Iranian passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, smashing into a field northwest of the capital and shattering to pieces. State television said all on board were killed.

An unidentified witness quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency said the plane's tail burst into flames in the air and it circled in the air as if looking for a place to land before it crashed.

The impact gouged a deep trench in the dirt field, which was shown littered with smoking wreckage in footage shown on state TV. It showed a large chunk of a wing, but much of the wreckage appeared to be in small pieces, and emergency workers and witnesses picked around the shredded metal for bodies and flight data recorders to determine the cause of the crash.

The Caspian Airlines Tupolev jet had taken off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport Wednesday and was headed to the Armenian capital Yerevan. Civil aviation spokesman Reza Jaafarzadeh told state media it crashed about 16 minutes after take-off near the village of Jannat Abad outside the city of Qazvin, around 75 miles northwest of Tehran, state television said.

Jaafarzadeh said the flight was carrying 153 passengers and 15 crewmembers.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090715/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_plane

---

As if there aren't enough problems.

[Blue_Tires]

6. onboard fire in the cargo hold, maybe??

the Tu154 has been around for a LONG time...maybe shoddy maintenence?

[excess_3]

7. get rid of 727-era aircraft .n/t

[tekisui]

10. Iran is under sanctions that prohibit upgrades.

They keep flying with older aircraft out of necessity.

[obliviously]

12. So let me guess

it is the fault of the us.

[tekisui]

13. I didn't say that. I was just giving the why this happened.

[HarvardMed]

14. that is correct n/t

[The Stranger]

11. Iran is still having to fly outdated, ancient Tupolev's because of the WEST'S SANCTIONS against

even civilian aircraft in countries like Iran. The whole "Axis of Evil" propaganda and "Terrorism" sanctions have a real impact on regular people like you and me who don't have a fucking thing to do with any of it.

And some of those people died unnecessarily today.

[excess_3]

15. Iran can buy anything from Airbus

do you just make this stuff up, or do you really believe it?

[Art_from_Ark]

16. You should ask yourself that question

"Sanctions against Iran mean that Boeing is unable to sell planes to the country’s airlines, while Airbus “feels constrained because the U.S. puts pressure on them not to,” he said.

While Iran can buy modern planes on the second-hand market, “it’s very awkward to operate like that because you then need service backup and parts.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=aaFWdzMnqZgo

[get the red out]

8. The Iranian people couldn't buy luck right now

This is so sad. Bad news on top of bad news for the people of Iran. :cry:

[LeftishBrit]

9. Truly horrible.