66 killed in plane crash in Iran

An Iranian passenger plane crashed into the Dena mountain on Sunday morning and all the 66 people on board were killed, Abed Zadeh, Chief of the Civil Aviation Organisation of Iran confirmed.

The ATR-72 aircraft belonging to Iran Aseman Airlines had taken off from the capital at 08:00 a.m. local time (0330 GMT) but crashed near Bideh village of the central city of Semirom.

Pir-Hossein Koulivand, the head of Iran's Emergency Medical Services, said the plane crashed only 185.2 kilometers (113 miles) before reaching Yasuj, Press TV reported.

The plane, with the flight number of 3704, had disappeared from the radar screen 50 minutes after taking off from Tehran, with 60 passengers and six crew members on board.

The crisis management bureau of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province met this morning and 20 emergency teams were dispatched to the region.

According to an official with Rescue and Welfare Organization of Iran's Red Crescent Society, the windy, rainy and misty air condition at the Zagros Mountain Range in the region has made the survey almost unlikely for the time being and the helicopters' operations are impossible, state IRIB TV reported.

Local people have rushed to the mountain area to help the emergency teams find the signs for the accident, IRIB said.

The Red Crescent deputy of Isfahan Province, Karimi, also told IRIB that two major factors of bad weather condition and the mountaineer geography of the area would make it longer for the survey.

Besides, the weather condition is broadcast to be snowy for the Sunday night, the Meteorological Organization of Isfahan Province said.