Ukrainian Passenger Plane Carrying 180 People Crashes After Take Off In Iran

A Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 180 people has crashed shortly after take off in Iran.

The aircraft crashed in the Tehran suburb of Parand and the BBC reports Iran's Red Crescent said there is no chance of finding survivors.

Pictures have been uploaded to social media purporting to be from the place where the plane crashed. They show the plane in several pieces with some still on fire.

A spokesperson for Iran's Aviation Corporation said: "When we received the news about the Ukrainian plane's crash, the emergency teams went to the crash location to find out the incident details and rescue survivors."

No foul play is suspected as the cause of the crash, according to 7News, and a technical fault is being blamed. Flight data shows the Ukrainian 737-800 dropped to the ground just after it left Imam Khomeini Airport and was bound for Kiev.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky sent a message to the victims, saying: "According to preliminary data, all passengers and crew members were killed. Our embassy clarifies the information about the circumstances of the tragedy and the lists of casualties.

"My sincere condolences to the families and friends of all passengers and crew members."

Tensions are high in Iran at the moment after the military fired more than a dozen rockets at two military bases in Iraq, which house US troops. The attack was in response to a US drone strike that killed Iran's top military commander Qassem Soleimani.

PA

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement: "The fierce revenge by the Revolutionary Guards has begun."

Iraq's Joint Military Command confirmed that several rockets had hit the American base at Asad, in Anbar Province, in western Iraq and the Erbil base in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The White House has released a statement: "The President has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with his national security team."

Local media reports the rockets hit the base at 1:20am, which was the same time Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was killed last week.

Topics: News

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie