Airplane crashes in Teheran, killing 176

A Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people crashed on Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Teheran, killing all people on board.

The plane had taken off from Imam Khomeini International Airport when a fire broke out in one of its engines, said Qasem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry. The pilot of the aircraft then lost control of the plane, and it slammed into the ground, Biniaz said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.

IRNA also said one of the plane's two black boxes — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — had been found.

The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations, Reuters said. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said that there were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians on board. The Ukrainian nationals included two passengers and the nine crew members. There were also 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three British people. Airline officials said most of the passengers were en route to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, transiting there to other destinations.

In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky extended his condolences to the families of the victims. "My sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of all passengers and crew," Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine was seeking to establish the circumstances of the crash and the death toll.

At a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said "China expressed deep condolences to the victims and their families", adding that the Chinese embassy and consulate general in Ukraine had contacted Ukrainian authorities for further information.

So far, there has been no notification of casualties involving Chinese citizens, Geng said, and further information, if any, will be published promptly. "We hope the relevant parties will find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible," he said.

Yevhen Dykhne, president of Ukraine International Airlines, said at a briefing that the aircraft involved was "one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew".

Flight data from the airport showed the Boeing 737-800 flown by Ukraine International Airlines almost immediately stopped transmitting data after it took off on Wednesday morning, according to website FlightRadar24.

According to Reuters, the plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 2,300-kilometer flight, crashed in farmland near the town of Shahedshahr on the outskirts of Teheran. Video footage taken immediately after the crash shows fires lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.

The Boeing 737-800 was introduced in the late 1990s and is a common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of these planes are used by airlines around the world.