TEHRAN: A Caspian Airlines plane carrying some 150 passengers slid off the runway onto a highway on landing at an airport in southwestern Iran on Monday, but all those on board were evacuated without injury, Iranian state media reported.
The Caspian Airlines Boeing Flight No. 6936 had left Tehran for Mahshahr early Monday morning. It ran out of runway when landing at Mahshahr airport with no casualties, state news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA, quoting local aviation officials, said a technical issue delayed the plane’s landing which caused the accident.
“The plane did not catch fire and all passengers safely left the plane,” managing Director of Khuzestan Airports Mohammad Reza Rezaei told IRNA.
Iranian reports identified the plane only as a McDonnell Douglas without being more specific, but Caspian has only the McDonnell Douglas MD-83s in its fleet.
On Saturday, an Iranian airplane en route from Tehran to Istanbul made an emergency landing at a Tehran airport because of a technical problem, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Iran’s airlines have been plagued by crashes, which Iranian rulers blame on US sanctions that block the airlines from replacing their aging fleets or purchasing spare parts from the West.
Monday’s incident comes as Iran is still coping with the aftermath of the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner over Tehran. The plane was shot down by the Revolutionary Guard earlier this month amid heightened tensions with the United States, killing all 176 people aboard.
(with inputs from Agencies)
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