No fewer than 176 passengers and crew members fates unknown as a Boeing 737 plane carrying them reportedly crashed few minutes after takeoff from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, the capital of Iran.
WITHIN NIGERIA learnt that the Ukrainian International Airlines plane took off from the Iranian capital city’s main international airport by 6:12am Tehran time on Wednesday January 8.
According to flight tracking websites, it was revealed that the plane crashed eight minutes after takeoff.
According to ISNA news agency, a video purportedly of the crash showed the aircraft burning as it fell from the sky, early indications suggested the crash did not appear to have links to Wednesday morning’s missile strikes on bases in Iraq hosting US and coalition troops.
نخستین ویدئو از سقوط هواپیمای اوکراینی اطراف شهریار pic.twitter.com/M3bZiLLryQ
— خبرگزاری ایسنا (@isna_farsi) January 8, 2020
While reacting to the incident, the head of Iran’s Emergency Medical Services, Pirhossein Koulivand said emergency crew members have been dispatched to the crash site but couldn’t assist because the area is currently ablaze.
The airplane which crashed has reportedly been in service for about three and half years according to flight-tracking service FlightRadar 24.
It is also believed that the Boeing 737 airplane belongs to the same family as the 737 Max 8 aircraft, which has been grounded since suffering two fatal crashes within six months in Indonesia and Ethiopia.