12 Indians Among 60 Killed In Iranian Crash Near Sharjah Airport

Email this page Print this page

Local media reports said that at least two people survived the crash. Television reports said there could be more survivors.

Most of the Indians killed are reported to have come to UAE for jobs and they are believed to have been from the southern part of India.

Various sources put the number of people on board the plane at between 40 to 70.

Television pictures showed rescue workers looking for survivors in the plane's simmering wreckage.

Television footage showed several dead bodies, and flames and black smoke pouring from the wreckage of the front of the plane.

Rescue helicopters and ambulances have gone to the scene.

Rescuers wearing surgical masks over their mouths were seen battling through the smoke as firemen doused the wreckage with water hoses.

The plane crashed in an uninhabited area about 3 kms from the airport. Initial reports said it had crashed on take-off.

It was believed to be a twin turboprop Dutch-built short-range Fokker-50, designed to carry up to 70 people.

Around 12 of the passengers and all the crew were Iranian and most of the rest Indian or Filipino.

While initial reports said the plane crashed while taking off, officials said it was coming from Kish in Iran and went down as it approached to land in Sharjah.

The plane, reports said, belonged to Kish Air. Kish airlines was the first private Iranian airline registered in Iran, and has special status in the country's tourist industry.

The island of Kish is a holiday destination but also used as a transit point for guest workers in the Gulf for so-called visa runs, by which they leave the country in which they are working and return there with a new visa.

Many poorer workers from Asia use this short, low-cost route rather than travelling to other Gulf states.

It is worth mentioning here that Iran has a history of air accidents, often blamed on badly maintained planes. Two decades of sanctions by the West against Tehran have left the country with a fleet of mainly ageing aircraft.

Its worst air disaster came in February last year when 302 people including 284 members of the elite Republican Guard died in a military transport plane crash near the Afghan border.

* SOME OF IRAN'S AIR DISASTERS

= February 03: Military transport aircraft carrying 302 people crashes in southern Iran, killing all on board. = December 02: An-140 commuter plane carrying aerospace experts crashes in central Iran, killing all 46 people aboard. = February 02: Tu-154 operated by Iran Air crashes in mountains in the west of Iran, killing all 117 on board. = March 97: 80 die when a military plane crashes in north-east Iran = February 93: Tu-154 crashes into a military plane near Tehran, killing 132.