A Ukrainian airplane crashed shortly after takeoff in Iran, killing all 176 people on board

iran ukraine crash
iran ukraine crash

AP Photos/Mohammad Nasiri

  • A passenger jet burst into flames shortly after taking off and crashed in Iran early Wednesday morning, killing all 176 people on board.

  • Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 had been traveling from Tehran, Iran, to Kyiv, Ukraine.

  • Iranian authorities blamed the crash on technical difficulties with the aircraft engine.

  • The plane was a Boeing 737-800, the previous generation of Boeing's 737 family of jets. The current generation, the 737 Max, has been grounded worldwide since March.

  • Read all of Business Insider's coverage of this crash.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A passenger jet burst into flames and crashed shortly after taking off from Iran's Imam Khomeini airport at about 6:20 a.m. on Wednesday.

The Boeing 737-800 plane, operated by Ukraine International Airlines, had been heading from Tehran to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

iran ukraine crash
iran ukraine crash

AP Photos

Flight 752 had been carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members.

There were no survivors, an Iranian Emergency Department spokesman, Mojtaba Khaledi, told the state-run IRNA news agency.

The jet was three years old and underwent planned maintenance checks three days ago, the airline said on Wednesday.

Iranian officials have blamed the crash on technical difficulties stemming from the engine, dismissing the notion that it was caused by a military strike.

An official from Iran's Roads and Urban Development Ministry also blamed the crash on a "fire in a part of the engine and the pilot's unsuccessful effort to control the plane," according to BBC Monitoring.

"Had the accident happened due to a missile strike, the plane would have exploded in the air," the ministry added.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran also called the crash an accident but did not specify a cause.

Investigators have found one of the flight's so-called black boxes, which record flight data and audio from the cockpit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to the victims' families and said he had instructed his prosecutor general to open criminal proceedings into the crash, according to Reuters.

Video posted to Twitter by the Iranian news agency ISNA, which it described as the "first video of Ukrainian plane crashing near Shahriar," appeared to show a plane rapidly descending, followed by an explosion on the ground.

Ukraine International Airlines operates a daily flight from Tehran to Kyiv.

Data from the flight-tracking service FlightRadar24 appeared to show the airline's Flight 752 departing from Tehran, with communication with the plane being lost approximately three minutes later.

FlightRadar24 posted an image of Flight 752's flight path to Twitter.

The Boeing 737-800 is the previous generation of Boeing's 737 family of jets. The current generation, the 737 Max, has been grounded worldwide since March following two fatal crashes caused by a faulty flight-control system. Both 737 Max crashes occurred within minutes of takeoff.

iran ukraine crash
iran ukraine crash

AP Photos/Mohammad Nasiri

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