A post-accident fire killed 28 of the 148 of passengers on board an Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154M that slewed off the runway on landing at Mashhad, north eastern Iran, according to the official Iranian news agency.
Iran Air holiday division Iran Air Tours had been operating the Tu-154 on a service from Bandar Abbas.
All 11 crew survived the 1 September accident, but no official information has been released about what caused the aircraft to leave the runway after an apparently normal approach. Mashhad airport witnesses have suggested that directional control was lost after a nosewheel tyre burst, but this has not been confirmed.
According to Flight's ACAS database, the 18-year old aircraft (EP-MCF) was owned by the Russian-based Vnukovo Aircraft Maintenance Plant.
|
|---|
Source: Flight International
