Plane crashes in Iran, killing all 66 aboard

Iran's Aseman Airlines plane carrying 66 people crashed on the outskirts of Iran's central city of Semirom, Isfahan province, on Sunday morning, Tehran Times reported.

The plane was heading from Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasouj when it disappeared from radar, the publication said quoting Farsnews agency.

A spokesman for Aseman Airlines spokesman told state TV that the crash has killed all 66 people who were on board. Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai spoke to state TV on Sunday.

He said that the flight carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members, adding that the plane crashed in Mount Dena, which is some 440 meters (1,440 feet) tall.

Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near the remote mountain town of Semirom, some 620 kilometers (390 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website. It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area and authorities said they would be investigating.

Locals described hearing the crash, though no one had found the crash site yet, according to state TV.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., said it had no immediate information about the crash. The manufacturer specializes in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes.