Bad weather is being cited as the prime cause of Iran’s worst air disaster, in which an Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft crashed in a mountainous region of southeast Iran yesterday evening, killing all 302 people on board. However, a glance at Jane’s reference data suggests that overloading of the aircraft may well have been a contributory factor. As of yesterday, the Iranian military had around 15 Il-76MD ‘Candid-Bs’ in service, many of which were originally in Iraq’s inventory and were impounded by Iran following the exodus of Baghdad’s military air assets after the launch of Operation ‘Desert Storm’ in...