Iranian plane catches fire, killing 80, TV says

TEHRAN, Sep 1 (Reuters) An Iranian passenger plane caught fire after its tyre burst on landing at an airport in Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad today, killing at least 80 people, state television and officials said.

State television said 147 people were on board the flight to Mashhad, home to Iran's holiest shrine, from the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. It put the death toll at 80, all of them passengers. Television said all the crew survived.

A civil aviation official, Reza Jafarzadeh, told Reuters 148 people were on the state-owned Iranairtour plane, flight number 945, but he did not give a death toll. He said investigation teams were at the scene.

Television pictures showed a broken-up plane lying on the side of the runway with parts of its fuselage charred. The cockpit appeared to be largely unaffected by the fire, as did much of the rear portion of the plane. Firefighters were shown extinguishing fires in parts of the smouldering wreck and clambering over other areas of the fuselage, carrying out corpses covered in blankets.

An Iran air tour official confirmed the incident involved one of its planes but gave no details.

The plane, a Russian-built Tupolev 154, caught fire at 1.45 pm (1015 GMT) after slipping off the side of the runway when a tyre burst on landing, state media reported.

IRAN'S POOR SAFETY RECORD Pilgrims flock to Mashhad throughout the year to visit the tomb of Imam Reza, the eighth Muslim Shi'ite imam. It was not clear if any of those on board the Iran air tour flight were making the pilgrimage.

Bandar Abbas, where the plane began its journey, is the Islamic Republic's main port. Nearby the port is the popular Iranian holiday destination of Qeshm island.

Air safety experts say Iran has a poor safety record with a string of crashes in recent decades, many involving Russian-made aircraft.

US sanctions on the Islamic state have prevented it from buying new aircraft or spares from the West, forcing it to supplement its aging fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes with aircraft from the former Soviet Union.

The last major plane disaster in Iran involved a military plane which crashed in January, killing at least 11 people. Another military plane hit a tower block in Tehran in December, killing 94 people on board and at least 22 people on the ground.

The most recent Iranian civil aviation disaster involved a Kish airlines Fokker-50 plane, which crashed in February 2004 during landing in Sharjah airport in the United Arab Emirates killing 43 of the 45 passengers and crew aboard.

REUTERS BDP VV1906