Updated February 19, 2018 00:35:16

Photo: The plane was an ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance flights. (Wikimedia Commons, file photo)

An Iranian commercial aircraft has crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, killing all 66 people on board, state media reports.

An Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometres south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV all on Flight No EP3704 were killed.

Due to foggy conditions, rescue helicopters couldvnot reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.

Mr Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 4,400 metres tall.

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran and specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website.

The ATR-72 that crashed on Sunday had been built in 1993, Aseman Airlines chief executive Ali Abedzadeh told state TV.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area, and authorities said they would be investigating.

Crash site not found

Locals described hearing the crash, though no one had found the crash site yet, according to state TV.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo SpA, said it had no immediate information about the crash.

The manufacturer specialises in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars.

US politicians have expressed concern about the airplane sales to Iran.

President Donald Trump remains sceptical of the atomic accord overall and has refused to re-certify it, putting the deal in question.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world.

However, Western analysts are sceptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536-million ($677 million) sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft.

Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion ($3.79 billion) deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

AP

Topics: air-and-space, world-politics, foreign-affairs, iran-islamic-republic-of

First posted February 18, 2018 20:44:51