All 168 aboard Iranian plane killed

A spokesman for Iranian Aviation Organization confirmed death of all 168 people aboard an Iranian passenger plane traveling from Tehran to Yerevan, Armenia Wednesday morning.

Reza Jafarzadeh said the number included 15 crew members, all of whom were Iranians.

According to the official, there are no specific details of the crash available yet.

He said it was too soon to say whether technical failures caused the tragic crash which took place only 16 minutes after take off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in southern Tehran.

Based on the remarks of a senior police official, 11 members of Iran’s national juvenile judo team were also among the victims.

The police official also said a former Member of Parliament from Armenian minority was also killed in the crash.

The passenger plane belonging to the Caspian Airlines crashed near Jannat-Abad village in the suburbs of the provincial capital city of Qazvin, about 200 km northwest of Tehran, Wednesday morning.

Qazvin police chief, Colonel Masoud Jafari-Nasab told IRNA that the plane was completely destroyed and broken into pieces after crashing in Jannat-Abad farmlands.

He added that a team of experts was immediately dispatched to the scene of the crash to investigate into the causes of the accident.

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