Three survive Gulf plane crash

An Iranian plane carrying 46 people crashed as it landed at Sharjah airport in the United Arab Emirates today, killing at least 35 people.

Three survivors were being treated at a nearby hospital, it was reported.

Television footage showed burning, smoking wreckage and rescue helicopters landing near the Kish Air Fokker 50 plane.

A row of bodies covered in red blankets was visible in the footage, and frantic-looking rescue workers in white robes were seen pushing at the plane’s debris, searching for survivors.

Three victims arrived at al-Qasimi hospital in Sharjah, two of them in critical condition and the third listed only as stable, the Emirates’ official news agency, WAM, reported, citing unidentified hospital officials.

It said another person rushed to a different hospital was dead on arriving.

Witnesses reported seeing about 30 bodies pulled from the wreckage and laid out beneath blankets at the scene.

More bodies were seen being taken away in ambulances from the crash scene, which witnesses said was on a road near an upper-class residential neighbourhood.

The plane crashed in an open area about two miles from the airport, said Ghanem al-Hajiry, director general of civil aviation and the Sharjah Airport Authority.

He said he had seen some survivors and did not have casualty figures, but that the plane had been carrying 40 passengers and six crew members.

Al-Hajiry said the plane crashed at 11.40am (7.40am Irish time), but that the cause of the crash was not yet known. He said there were no casualties on the ground.

Civil aviation and television reports said the plane was returning to Sharjah from the Iranian island of Kish in the Gulf when it went down.

Flights to nearby destinations such as Kish are mainly used by foreigners who exit and return in order to remain within visa requirements in the United Arab Emirates. Foreigners need to exit and re-enter on a new visa, which takes two or three days to process.

Kish is a favourite destination for visa changes because tickets are cheap and foreigners do not need visas to enter the island. Cheap hotels cater to visa-changers, many of them labourers or maids working in the Emirates.

Such flights are normally used by Asian workers, including Indians, Pakistanis and Filipinos, who make up the bulk of the Emirates’ work force.

Families of passengers who were expected to arrive on the flight began arriving at the airport.

Abdel Rasoul al-Majidy said his 65-year-old father-in-law was supposed to be arriving on the flight. “We don’t know what’s going on. All we know is that my father-in-law was arriving today and then we heard of this plane crash,” he said.

His wife, Fawziyah, began screaming hysterically at airport officials: “Where’s my father, where’s my father?”

Emirates officials said later that 43 people were known to have died.

Col Saleh Ali al-Mutawaa, general director of Sharjah Police, said 43 of the 46 people aboard the plane had died: 12 Indians, 19 Iranian, four Egyptians, two Filipinos, two Algerians, one Syrian, one Chinese, one Nigerian and a Bangladeshi.

Three crash victims were receiving treatment at al-Qasimi hospital in Sharjah. Two of them were in critical condition.