At least 39 killed in passenger jet crash in Tehran

Iranian Revolutionary Guards stand alert at the site of the wreckage of a passenger plane crash near the capital Tehran, Iran, Aug 10, 2014. [Photo/IC]

DUBAI - A passenger plane, Antonov-140, bound for Tabas in northeast Iran with 48 passengers and crew on board crashed on a road near Tehran's Mehrabad airport on Sunday, killing at least 39 people, Iranian state media reported.

Initial reports said that all passengers and crew on board had been killed, but state media later reported that some passengers had been injured and transferred to hospital.

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said that eight or nine had survived and quoted a doctor as saying that one of the injured had regained consciousness.

State television said 38 people died instantly and 10 were injured and were transferred to hospital in critical condition.

Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported that five had been taken to hospital, but cited a doctor at Imam Hospital as saying they had died.

The Civil Aviation Authority said the passengers included two infants and three children under the age of 12, IRNA reported.

The pilot detected technical issues four minutes after takeoff and tried to return to the airport, state television said, but the twin-engine turboprop crashed on a road at 9: 18 am local time. One eyewitness said the plane crashed into a wall.

A photograph on IRNA's website showed a huge plume of black smoke billowing over traffic standing at a road intersection. A photograph from the Iran Student News Agency showed a charred tailfin lying on the ground.

The plane's black box has yet to be found, the deputy minister of Roads and Urban Development said.

Iran has seen several air disasters involving both civil and military use aircraft in recent years.

In the latest incident in January 2011, an air crash near the airport of the northwestern city of Urmia killed 77 people, including four foreigners.