Aircraft crashes into 10-story building during emergency landing
A military plane loaded with Iranian journalists crashed into a 10-story apartment building Tuesday as the pilot attempted an emergency landing after developing engine trouble. At least 115 people died, the Tehran police chief said.
Witnesses initially said the C-130 hit the top of the building. But officials, including Police Chief Mortaza Talaei, said one wing of the transport plane hit the second floor as the fuselage crashed to ground, gouging out a huge crater and causing a fire that spread through the structure.
Everyone on the plane � 84 passengers and a crew of 10 � was killed. Most were Iranian radio and television journalists heading to cover military maneuvers in southern Iran.
Twenty-one people in the apartment building also died, and 90 were injured, Tehran state radio said. Only nine of the injured were hospitalized late Tuesday, Talaei said on Iranian television.
Initial reports said 128 people total had died.
The C-130, a four-engine turboprop, crashed in the Azari suburb of Tehran, site of the Towhid apartment complex that is home to air force personnel and near Tehran�s Mehrabad airport.
Before firefighters extinguished the blaze, flames roared from the roof and windows in several of the upper floors. Panicked residents fled the building. Police held back a crowd of thousands, many of them screaming and weeping that they had to find friends or loved ones who were in the building.
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