Iran military plane crashes, 38 killed - state TV

TEHRAN, Nov 27 (Reuters) An Iranian military aircraft crashed at an airport in Tehran today, killing 38 people on board, state-run Iranian television reported.

It said the Russian-designed Antonov-74 belonged to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the ideological wing of the Islamic Republic's military.

The television said in written captions on screen 35 Guards and three crew were killed.

A television reporter quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying 32 Guards and six crew had been killed.

A civil aviation official told state radio all those on board had been killed.

''A few minutes ago an Antonov-74 plane that belonged to the Revolutionary Guards crashed after taking off from Mehrabad airport,'' the television said, adding the plane had been due to fly to Shiraz south of the capital.

Tehran's Mehrabad airport is used for civilian and military flights.

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

U S sanctions against Iran have prevented it from buying new aircraft or spares from the West, forcing it to supplement its ageing fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes with aircraft from the former Soviet Union.

A military plane crashed in January, killing at least 11 people and another military plane hit a tower block in Tehran in December last year, killing 94 people on board and at least 22 on the ground.

The last civilian aviation disaster was in September, when an Iranian airliner caught fire after landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, killing 28 people.

Reuters BDP DB1134