Iran's Civil Aviation Unveils Whereabouts of Crashed PlaneIran's Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) said that a plane carrying transport minister probably crashed in the northern province of Mazandaran, state television reported Friday morning.The organization denied the Interior Ministry's earlier report that wreckage of the ill-fated plane was found in an area between Kashmar and Neishabour in Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran. CAO in another report had said that the plane, with Minister of Road and Transport Rahman Dadman, two of his deputies and seven members of parliament on board probably, crashed on the road linking Sari and Kiasar in Pol-e Sefid region in Mazandaran. On Thursday, the Interior Ministry did not mention the fate of all the people aboard although some reports said all of them were presumed dead. According to Tehran Radio, limited facilities and heavy rain in the region has hampered large-scale search and rescue operations. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the president's office and the parliament have set up a committee to probe the crash while army and Basijis (volunteer forces) have been mobilized in the search for the aircraft, it added. A fact-finding delegation from Armenian Aviation Organization arrived here late Thursday to monitor and assist the search and rescue operation. Reza Jaafarzadeh, a senior CAO official, was quoted earlier by the official IRNA news agency as saying that the delegation started talks with CAO officials on the incident and ways to search and rescue all 29 people on board. The pilot, co-pilot and three of the crew were Armenian nationals, according to IRNA. The Russian-made Yak-40 of the Faraz Qheshm airlines crashed en route to the northern city of Gorgan in Golestan Province early Thursday morning. It lost contacts with the control center before landing in Gorgan. The passengers flew to Gorgan to attend an inaugural ceremony of the city's new airport and inaugurate several other projects. |
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