A Ukrainian airliner carrying at least 170 passengers crashed on Wednesday due to technical problems soon after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, and all aboard were killed, Iran’s state television said.
The Boeing 737 belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashed near the airport and burst into flames.
“The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue... we have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site,” Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s emergency services, told state television.
Engine failure caused the crash of a Ukrainian airliner in Iran, rather than a missile attack or act of terrorism, the Ukrainian embassy to Iran said on Wednesday, citing preliminary information.
In a statement, the embassy also said that 168 people had bought tickets for the flight.
According to air tracking service FlightRadar24, the plane that crashed was Flight PS 752 and was flying to Kiev. The plane was three years old and was a Boeing 737-NG, it said.
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