Helicopter crashes in west Tehran

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-16 16:52

TEHRAN: An Iranian military helicopter crashed on Sunday near the capital city of Tehran and there was no immediate report of casualties, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reported.

The helicopter, belonging to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), crashed in Shahriar county, 45 km west of Tehran, the report said.

Shahriar county governor Mohammad-Ali Erfanmanesh was quoted as saying that while authorities had confirmed the incident, there have been no immediate details on what might have caused the crash.

The aircraft crash was the latest one added to the poor air safety record of Iran, which has seen a series of aviation disasters over the past one month.

It came only one day after a small training aircraft crashed and burst into flames near the Iranian capital, killing two people on board.

On August 10, three people were killed and three others injured in a Bell 205 police helicopter crash in southern Iran.

Iran has suffered a number of flight disasters due to the poor condition of the country's civil and military aircraft.

Experts believe the US-imposed sanctions against Iran, which prevented its allies from selling aircraft or aircraft parts to the country, have undermined safety standards within Iran's civil and military aviation fleet and are increasing the likelihood of more major air disasters.