Several top Iranian military officers were among at least 11 people killed in a plane crash on Monday, the local media reported, the second such crash in barely a month.
The military plane came down near Orumiyeh in northwestern Iran near the Turkish border and all 11 people aboard were killed, the Mehr agency reported.
Emergency services chief Farzad Panahi told the Fars agency the plane was carrying 15 people, including eight Revolutionary Guard commanders. Thirteen were killed and two missing, he said.
The crash of the Falcon came barely a month after a decrepit Iranian military transport plane plunged into the foot of a high-rise housing block in Tehran after suffering engine failure.
A total of 108 people were killed in the December 6 incident, which raised concerns across the country about the state of the planes used by the military.
Among the dead in Monday’s crash were Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, Fars said, and a number of other top commanders, including an intelligence chief.
The Fars agency has close links to the Revolutionary Guards, which are known locally as Pasdarans.
A Guards spokesperson quoted by al-Alam television said the plane came down around 8.30am (5am GMT), with Mehr reporting the plane crashed after one of its engines stopped working.
The area around Orumiyeh, in West Azerbaijan province, is mountainous and weather conditions there notoriously bad during the winter months.
The Revolutionary Guards were set up in the wake of the 1979 revolution to defend the Islamic republic from “internal and external threats”. It is now one of Iran’s most powerful institutions and counts an estimated 350 000 men.
Iranian media said the Hercules plane involved in December’s crash — bought from the United States before the Islamic revolution nearly three decades ago and starved of spare parts — had been ordered to fly despite warnings from its pilot.
Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar is facing an impeachment process over that accident.
Since the revolution, clerical-ruled Iran has been subject to tough US sanctions, hindering the purchase of critical spare parts for all US-made planes in its air force, civilian flag carrier Iran Air and domestic airlines. – AFP