10.01.2011, 11:04 3366

71 dead, 35 survive as IranAir jet crashes on landing

Iranian passenger plane with more than 100 people on board has crashed in north-western Iran, killing at least 72, officials say, BBC reports.

Almaty. January 10. Kazakhstan Today - Iranian passenger plane with more than 100 people on board has crashed in north-western Iran, killing at least 72, officials say, BBC reports.

The IranAir Boeing 727 was flying from Tehran when it came down and broke into pieces near the city of Orumiyeh.

Thirty-three people survived, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, quoting the coroner's office of West Azerbaijan province.

Reports said darkness and snow were hampering rescue efforts.

Earlier reports had said that 50 people survived the crash.

The plane was due to land in Orumiyeh, 700km (430 miles) north-west of Tehran.

It crashed near the city at around 1945 local time (1615 GMT), according to another local official quoted on Iranian state television's website.

The official said the plane had taken off an hour later than scheduled, and came down because of bad weather conditions.

Associated Press informs the nature of the technical failure was unclear. A spokesman for the Iranian civil aviation organization, Abbas Mosayebi, said only that the plane "faced an incident," state TV reported.

The network also said the aircraft disappeared from radar and went down in farmland after making a second attempt to land. There was no word on what might have caused the crash.

Thirty-five people survived, including two crew members, said Javad Mahmoudi, another deputy governor for West Azerbaijan, speaking to State TV. He put the number of confirmed dead at 71.

Some of the passengers were only lightly wounded and able to walk off the plane and some had to be hospitalized, Mosayebi said.

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