时事资讯:伊朗客机坠毁 168人罹难

【英文原文】

Iranian Jetliner Crashes, Killing All 168 On Board

摘要：据伊朗官方媒体报导，周三上午，伊朗一架由德黑兰飞往亚美尼亚埃里温的图式客机在起飞16分钟后坠毁，机上168人全部罹难。

An Iranian Tupolev passenger plane bound from Tehran to Yerevan, Armenia, crashed Wednesday morning 16 minutes after takeoff, killing all 168 people on board, according to state media reports.

Iran's Civil Aviation Organization spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh told Iranian state media that the airplane, owned by Caspian Airlines, crashed near Janat-Abad village at 11:45 a.m. (3:15 a.m. Eastern), 16 minutes after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport.

Members of Iran's Junior Judo squad, including eight athletes and two coaches, were among those killed in the crash, the state-run, English-language news service Press TV reported. State media said Leon Davidian, a member of Iran's Sixth Parliament during Mohammad Khatami's presidency, was on the flight as well. Based on a list of passengers provided to state media, the crash victims appeared to be mostly Armenians and Iranians.

It was unclear what caused the crash. The Deputy Governor of Qazvin province, Sirous Saberi, told state press that the military was searching for the plane's black box. The managing director of Iran's airport authority was quoted saying conversations between the pilot and the ground appeared normal and didn't indicate any technical glitch.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered a probe into the crash.

A witness, quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency, said the plane's tail burst into flames in the air. The plane circled in the air before crashing. The impact gouged a deep trench in a dirt field, which was shown littered with smoking wreckage in photos published by state media.

According to its Web site, Caspian Airlines was established in 1992 as an Iranian company. The airline operates dozens of regular and charter flights per week between Iranian cities and to international destinations like Hungary, the United Arab Emirates and Syria. Caspian airlines operates a fleet of five, Russian-made Tupolev 154M medium range aircraft, according to CH-Aviation, an aviation Web site.

Caspian Airlines is headquartered in Tehran and has representative offices in Kiev and Budapest, according to the airline website. Representatives of the airline in these offices weren't reachable Wednesday.