All 176 people on board a Ukraine International Airlines flight were killed when it crashed shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, it has been reported.
The flight was operated by Ukraine International Airlines, the flag carrier and the largest airline in Ukraine, flying from Iranian capital Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport to Boryspil International Airport in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Emergency officials confirmed that the plane was carrying 167 passengers and 9 crew members. The aircraft model was Boeing 737-800.
Ukraine International Airlines plane crash in Tehran
Plane crash in Iran
Flight PS 752 was supposed to take off at 05:15 local time, however it was delayed by approximately an hour. It later took off from Tehran at 06:12 local time. Flight data from Flightradar24 shows no discrepancies in speed or altitude data than a normal flight would display. The final ADS-B data received was at 06:14, less than 3 minutes after departure. According to the data, the last recorded altitude was at 2,415 m (7,925 ft) and was at an airspeed of 260 knots (483 kilometers). The flight was climbing when the altitude record abruptly ended.
Flightradar24 data
The crash came just hours after Iran launched missiles into Iraq to retaliate against a U.S. drone strike last week that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, in Baghdad.
In addition, the crash occurred less than an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. civil aviation “from operating in the airspace over Iraq, Iran, and the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.”.
However, it remains unclear whether the incident is linked to the Iran-US confrontation.
Some media reports say that terrorist act has been ruled out and that engine malfunction was the cause of the crash.
The plane that crashed was Boeing 737-800 manufactured about 3 and half years ago and is an earlier generation than the troubled MAX aircraft that has been grounded globally after two deadly crashes in 2018 and last year.
