Iran plane overshoots runway and lands on city street
Another aviation tragedy in Iran was averted when all the passengers walked away after their MD83 plane apparently overshot the runway at Mahshahr airport.
Caspian Airlines flight 6936 had taken off normally from Tehran airport on an early-morning trip to the city in southwest Iran.
It is believed to have landed at 6.35am local time. Some reports say that the pilots had reported a technical failure.
The aircraft, registered EP-CPZ, was a 25-year-old US-built twin-jet. From smartphone footage and photographs on social media, it appears to have overshot the runway after landing and crossed a busy dual carriageway.
The undercarriage has been ripped off but no other damage is evident from the footage.
Passengers are shown leaving the aircraft from exits on the port side, jumping a short way down to the ground from the front and rear doors and climbing out onto the wings from the centre exits.
It is reported that 135 people were onboard, including some children.
The crew directed the evacuation from inside the aircraft. There is no sign of the emergency services, despite the risk of fire after an incident such as this.
Earlier this month, all 176 people aboard a Ukraine International flight from Tehran to Kiev died when the aircraft was shot down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Caspian Airlines suffered a fatal accident in 2009 when an engine fire aboard a Tupolev 154M occurred shortly after take off from Tehran on a flight to Yerevan in Armenia. All 168 passengers and crew died.
Iran’s airlines are subject to sanctions that prevent the country from acquiring modern aircraft. President Trump ended a multi-billion dollar deal for the nation to buy new planes.
As a result, Iran has long depended on planes that are regarded as obsolete elsewhere. It was the last country to operate the Boeing 707 on passenger services.
