People are seen at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18, 2018. An Iranian passenger plane crashed into the Dena mountain on Sunday morning and all the 66 people on board were killed, Abed Zadeh, Chief of the Civil Aviation Organisation of Iran confirmed. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)
TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Bad weather hindered Iranian rescue teams' search for the wreckage of an Iranian passenger plane that crashed on Sunday in central Iran.
The searching operations in the Zagros mountains were slow due to the rain and strong wind, Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for Iran's emergency services, was quoted as saying by Press TV.
All people on board, including 60 passengers and six crew members, were killed in the crash, according to the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran.
The Iran Aseman Airlines plane took off from the capital at 08:00 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) and disappeared from the radar screen 50 minutes later, in an area that is about 14 miles (22.4 km) from its destination Yasuj city.
The ATR-72 aircraft, with the flight number 3704, has been in service for 25 years.
A total of 20 emergency teams were dispatched to the region as a result of the coordination among the crisis management agencies of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province and three adjacent provinces.
Dariush Karimi, the Red Crescent deputy of Isfahan Province, said bad weather condition and the rough mountainous geography of the area would hinder their search.
Besides, there would be snow fall later in the day, the Meteorological Organization of Isfahan Province said.
Following the incident, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday offered their condolences to the families of victims.
Some Iranian officials suspected that the cause of the crash is that ATR-72 aircraft has not been designed for the altitudes with freezing weather condition, therefore the pilot had to fly lower before crashed into the mountain.
The height of the mountains in Zagros Range reaches almost 4,000 meters which in winter season is inappropriate for the passage of the ATR-72 plane.
Iranian aviation officials said the cause of the incident will be announced after the black box of the crashed plane is recovered.
Over the past decades, the Iranian air fleet has encountered a number of disastrous accidents due to the malfunction of aged planes.
Following the international nuclear deal in 2015, which resulted in the removal of western and UN sanctions against the Islamic republic, Iran has signed major deals with giant airplane manufacturers, including Boeing and Airbus, to renew its old air fleet.
In December 2016, Iran sealed a contract with Airbus to buy 100 aircraft worth over 18 billion U.S. dollars. Iran has received three Airbus commercial planes since the conclusion of the deal.
Meanwhile, Iran Air finalized another agreement with the U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing to purchase 80 commercial planes.
In April 2017, Iran signed a contract with the French-Italian ATR company to purchase 20 ATR 72-600 planes valued at 400 million dollars. Since then, Iran has received a total of eight ATR turboprop planes.
