Airliner goes down in UAE

An Iranian airliner which crashed in the United Arab Emirates this morning had more than 50 people on board.

Sharjah television said that 49 passengers plus a child were on board. The number of crew was not clear.

The Iranian Kish Air plane came down in an uninhabited area, according to Sharjah television.

Mehdi Mehranpour, deputy managing director of Iran’s national carrier, Iran Air, said the plane belonged to Kish Air, a separate Iranian company.

Speaking in the Iranian capital of Teheran, Mehranpour said the airliner was a Fokker 50, which can carry about 60 people.

Iran has a history of air accidents, often blamed on badly maintained planes.

In June, an Iranian military C-130 transport plane crashed outside Teheran, killing all seven people on board.

In February, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all 275 aboard.

In Belarus in September, a Tupolev-154 belonging to Kish Air on a Teheran-Minsk-Copenhagen service went off course while making its landing approach at the Minsk-2 airport, striking trees which caused serious damage to the plane’s wings.

None of the 40 people aboard were hurt.

In 1995, an Iranian flight attendant hijacked a Kish Air Boeing 707 to Israel during a flight from Teheran. The plane was returned to Teheran with 174 passengers and crew.