Iran finds remains of plane in Zagros mountains

��

Iran finds remains of plane in Zagros mountains

Iranian rescue teams found the some of the remains of a plane that went missing in the Zagros mountains on Sunday.

MENA

2 min read

�� & agencies

20 February, 2018

Relatives of the passengers mourning as they gather near a Mosque [AFP]

Iranian rescue teams on Tuesday found the wreckage of a plane that went missing in the Zagros mountains two days earlier, a Revolutionary Guards spokesperson told state media.

"The Revolutionary Guards' helicopters this morning found the wreckage of the plane on Dena mountain," spokesperson Ramezan Sharif told state broadcaster IRIB.

"Since yesterday the Revolutionary Guards' drones started carefully identifying the geographical area where the plane had probably crashed and this morning two helicopters of the air forces were dispatched to the location," he added.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 disappeared on Sunday morning in the Zagros range with 66 people on board, around 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran.

"We are facing a total enigma. We do not know anything about the crash," Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi reportedly told Tasnim News Agency on arrival in Semirom.

The crash of the aircraft, brought back into service only months ago after being grounded for seven years, was yet another fatal aviation disaster for Iran, which for years was barred from buying necessary airplane parts due to Western sanctions over its contested nuclear programme, forcing Iranians to fly in ageing aircraft.

After two days of heavy snow and fog, the weather finally cleared on Tuesday morning, giving helicopter teams much better visibility.