Iran: Ukrainian plane with 180 passengers onboard crashes in Tehran shortly after take-off; no casualties reported so far

Tehran (Iran): A Boeing 737 belonging to Ukraine International Airlines with 180 passengers onboard crashed due to technical problems near an airport in the capital, Tehran, state TV reported. There was no immediate word on casualties.

A Ukrainian airplane carrying 180 passengers and crew has crashed near the airport in Tehran, Iranian state TV reports. https://t.co/fh4FsqyE1R

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 8, 2020

The plane had taken off from Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, the report said. The crash is suspected to have been caused by mechanical issues, it added, without elaborating. An investigation team was at the site of the crash in southwestern outskirts of Tehran, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said. The crash came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing US forces in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani. “The fierce revenge by the Revolutionary Guards has begun,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement on a Telegram channel. Hossein Soleimani, the editor-in-chief of Mashregh, the main Revolutionary Guards news website, said that short-range ballistic missiles had been fired at the US base at Asad, in Anbar province, in western Iraq.