Posted on 12/07/2005 4:33:22 AM PST by nuconvert
Iran under fire over plane crash
The authorities in Iran are facing bitter criticism over Tuesday's crash of an ageing military transport plane that killed about 110 people. Reports say the plane had experienced technical problems all morning, causing the take-off to be delayed for hours.
Iranian media also say the pilot had asked twice to make an emergency landing at Mehrabad airport, but had been refused because it was busy.
Military officials have strongly denied any suggestion of negligence.
The C-130 came down in a densely-populated residential district of south-west Tehran and ploughed into a 10-storey apartment block, setting it on fire.
Among those killed were 68 journalists being flown to the southern city of Bandar Abbas to report on military exercises.
The Iranian culture minister, Mohammad Hoseyn Saffar-Harandi, called the crash a "disaster for the journalistic community" and declared a day of mourning.
Technical problems
The wife of a photographer who was killed in the crash, Mohammad Karbalai, told the conservative Hamshahri newspaper that she had spoken to him shortly before the plane took off.
"The plane should have taken off at seven in the morning. My husband called me from the plane at eight to say there were technical problems. I was very worried," she said.
"I called him back at 10 o'clock, and the plane was still on the ground. He said the pilot was refusing to take off because of technical problems."
A Hamshahri editorial demanded that the authorities explain why a plane said to have technical problems was authorised to take off.
In the reformist Sharq newspaper, Rasul Khadem, a member of Tehran City Council, attacked the military for taking unnecessary risks.
"How much longer are we going to play with lives? How much longer do we have to use planes that should be sent to the scrap heap?" Mr Khadem said.
Military dismisses 'rumours'
The BBC's correspondent in Tehran, Frances Harrison, says some unconfirmed reports claim the pilot himself was unhappy about the condition of the plane and the same plane nearly crashed in the desert a week ago.
Its engines had to be switched on and off five times before it could take off on its final flight, she says.
Army officials have strongly denied any negligence and because this was a military flight, many people are wary about asking tough questions about their safety procedures, our correspondent says.
The Iranian air force is believed to have about 15 US-made C-130s in operation, dating back to before the 1979 Islamic revolution and the US boycott of Iran.
The country's civil and military aircraft have a poor safety record.
In 2003, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in south-east Iran killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.
Officials blame the high frequency of crashes on a lack of aviation spare parts due to US sanctions.
-Iran has some 15 C-130 E and H types dating from the mid-1970s
-A modern US variant is the AC-130 - a heavily armed gunship version - used in Iraq and Afghanistan
-First flew: 1956
-Max. take off weight: 69,750kg Engines: 4 Allison turboprops
-Range: 2,356 miles
Videos and photos of crash site at BBC link above
Make that 14.
hey, i have a couple of vouchers for a flight on iranian national airways, any takers?
Oooh, stop us before we kill again. If you can't get spare parts then don't fly the plane, doofuses.
Well, now we see why there's a furor.
BBC crap!
Right. They can't keep a cargo plane aloft and people are worried about us smacking them down?
Just imagine these murderous morons with nuclear missles.
The best solution would be for the Iranians to build their own planes.
Even as we speak, Iranian aviation engineers are investigating the lift/drag characteristics of various carpet designs in the transsonic flight regime...
;-)
Somehow I knew they would figure out a way to blame the US. No surprise here. I expect Kerry to make a similar observation.
Lol. Know anything about Iranian-built cars?
Actually they started building their own planes in the last year or two with the help of Ukraine. Ukrainian-Iranian plane.....Scary!
Well, that's one way of dealing with the Fourth Estate.
You'd think what happened to Daniel Pearl would've taught them something.
HF
"We don't care if you're on fire! It's prayer time down here!"
Wow. Those chaps have other problems besides the lack of spare parts.
Mayday, mayday !
No mayday for you ! /Soup Nazi voice
They really have a them now for "Death To America Day"...as soon as they can cook up theory as how American Spys and Zionist Jews brought down the plane.
"...Officials blame the high frequency of crashes on a lack of aviation spare parts due to US sanctions..."
Well; Faith an' B'gorrah!!; It's WORKING!
Do you suppose that the doomed Pilot was made "an offer that he couldn't refuse" - like the muzzle of a 9mm pressed up against his head? - As well as probable assurances that if he took the bullet in stead of the "offer", that his Family would be exterminated as well?
And how, pray tell, are these knuckleheads going to afford missle technology from the Russians if they can't afford to even keep their existing inventory of aircraft from falling out of the sky - despite the invisible, upholding hand of Allah, and without any help at all from the Israeli Air Force??!!
If they can afford Russki state of the art anti-aircraft missles, you'd think that they could afford a few Russian planes as well, now wouldn't you?
Here's hoping that the Muzzies don't take any better care of the rest of their military infrastructure than they do of their airplanes.
Seeing their first missle launch on Israel pull a "boomerang" and nuke their own launch site would be precious, wouldn't it?
Hey; can't we arrange for a tour of Iran for our own MSM pundits - on board of one of THEIR airplanes?
How are US sanctions to blame when a Russian built Ilyushin crashes?
OOh!; That's gotta HURT!
The site looks a bit like a sorry attempt to re-enact 9/11 right there in sunny Iran, IMHO.
Do you suppose that the Pilot was sufficiently PO'd by having been forced to fly what he probably knew was to be his last suicide mission (I wonder if some of those "reporters" on board had been overly critical of Mr. Aiatollah Kummhanni lately?) that he intentionally kamakazied the biggest building in his glide path?
It does not look to me as if he went out of his way to avoid the building - although I would think that a direct hit on a bldg. this size by a fully loaded C-130 would not have left much standing.
Didn't we have a Secretary of Agriculture for the Klinton Syndicate meet a similar fate on board a US C-130 down in South America?
Odd coincidence if we did, I suppose.
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