Iranian airline crashes in mountains; 118 believed dead

Associated Press WriterKHORRAMABAD, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian passenger jet crashed Tuesday in the mountains of western Iran amid snow and rain, and all 118 passengers and crew on board were believed dead, an official said.

Residents reported hearing an explosion and seeing the sky lit up red as the Russian-made Tu-154 went down in the Sefid Kouh mountains outside Khorramabad.

Rescue workers were delayed by snow and heavy fog before fihnally reaching the crash site. Reza Niknam, an advisor to the governor-general of Lorestan province, said he saw many remains on the mountainside and believes nobody could have survived.

"All the passengers and crew members died in the crash," he said.

Hamid Fouladvand, another official who managed to reach the crash site, described the grim scene.

"I saw dozens of bodies scattered deep in the valley. I also saw pieces of the plane. Wolves and bears were in the area and if the bodies aren't collected soon, they will be eaten," Fouladvand said.

The cause of the crash of the Iran Air Tours flight from Tehran to Khorramambad, about 230 miles to the southwest, wasn't known, though it had been raining and snowing in the mountains at the time of the crash.

The plane lost contact with the control tower at Khorramabad airport moments before it crashed at 7:55 a.m., 15 miles west of Khorramabad, state-run Iranian television said.

Government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that 105 passengers and 13 crew members were aboard the Tupolev.

"I heard a huge, really horrifying sound of an explosion," said Ardeshir Ghiyasvand of Key-Mirzavand, the closest village to the crash site. "Moments later, I saw that the clouds and fog over the mountains suddenly became red, everything turned from white to red."

He said it had been raining and snowing over the mountains at the time, and visibility had been minimal because of dense fog.

Relatives of passengers gathered at Tehran Mehrabad Airport, weeping as they sought information on the fate of loved ones.

"Where are you? What happened to you?" shouted Nasrin Shafiiyan, crying and beating her face and chest as she waited for news of her husband Houshang.

She said the crash was the fault of "the stupid incompetent officials who go and collect secondhand ... planes from all over the former Soviet countries. What is this garbage they buy or rent?"

In Moscow, Tupolev chief designer Aleksandr Shingart told Ekho Moskvy radio that the plane "had a proper routine servicing in January. It was immaculate and was thoroughly checked ... by Russian experts from the Vnukovo repair works near Moscow."

He suggested pilot error might be to blame for the crash.

President Mohammad Khatami named an emergency committee to investigate the cause of the crash, Iranian television reported.

Aviation experts from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the confederation of former Soviet republics, were also sent to Iran to investigate the crash, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said.

Several Iranian legislators called for the resignation or impeachment of Iran's Transport Minister Ahmad Khorram, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Iran Air Tours, a subsidiary of state carrier Iran Air, in recent years has leased mostly Russian-made Tupolev planes with Russian crew.

In May, a Yak-40 operated by the private Faraz Qeshm Airlines crashed in northeastern Iran in May, killing the transport minister and about 30 other passengers, including seven lawmakers. They were on their way to Gorgan, near the Caspian Sea, to inaugurate that city's airport.

Iran also has an aging fleet of U.S.-made Boeings purchased before the 1979 Islamic revolution. The United States has refused to provide spare parts for Boeing planes as part of its economic sanctions against Iran.

Iran has said the U.S. stance on spare parts endangers the lives of innocent passengers. In recent years, it has purchased a small number of Airbus planes.

On July 3, a Tu-154 slammed into a Siberian meadow, killing all 145 people aboard. With some 1,000 planes built since it entered service in the early 1970s, the Tu-154 is the most widely used jetliner in Russia and is used in many other countries.