A plane of the model Boeing 737, with 176 passengers and crew onboard, reportedly crashed shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, the capital of Iran.
The Ukrainian International Airlines plane departed from the main international airport in the Iranian capital at 6:12am Tehran time on Wednesday, January 8, and tragically crashed eight minutes after takeoff as per flight tracking websites.
While a video purportedly showing the crash, circulated by the ISNA news agency, depicted the plane burning as it descended, initial assessments suggest the crash was not related to the morning’s missile strikes on bases in Iraq hosting US and coalition troops.
نخستین ویدئو از سقوط هواپیمای اوکراینی اطراف شهریار
pic.twitter.com/M3bZiLLryQ— خبرگزاری ایسنا (@isna_farsi)
January 8, 2020
Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s Emergency Medical Services, confirmed that emergency crew members were dispatched to the crash site but were unable to assist due to the ongoing blaze in the area.
Reportedly, the crashed airplane had been in service for about three and a half years, according to flight-tracking service FlightRadar 24.
It is also believed that the Boeing 737 airplane belongs to the same family as the 737 Max 8 aircraft, which has been grounded since experiencing two fatal crashes within six months in Indonesia and Ethiopia.