DUBAI (Reuters) - A Boeing 707 military cargo plane crashed in bad weather on Monday west of the Iranian capital, killing 15 out of the 16 people on board, the Iranian army said.
A flight engineer survived and was taken to hospital, the army said in a statement carried by the semi-official Fars news agency.
The plane went down near Fath airport, near Karaj in the central Iranian province of Alborz.
“A Boeing cargo 707 place carrying meat from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan had an emergency landing at Fath airport today ... the flight engineer has been dispatched to the hospital,” the army said.
“It exited the runway during the landing and caught fire after hitting the wall at the end of the runway,” the army.
The army’s statement came after some confusion over who owned the plane. Earlier on Monday, a spokesman for Iran’s civil aviation told had told state TV that the plane belonged to Kyrgyzstan, while a spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport said the plane belonged to Iran’s Payam Air.
State TV said rescue teams had been sent to the area, between the airports of Fath and Payam. It showed footage of burning wreckage of the plane and a plume of smoke rising from the crash site.
A  cargo plane, reported by local press as belonging to the Iranian military, crashed into houses in , near Tehran, the Iranian capital, yesterday. All but one of the sixteen on-board died; no deaths were reported on the ground, with local media reporting no-one was in the houses.
File image depicting Karaj.
The aircraft came down into a residential area between , where it was attempting to land, and . Fath Airport is owned by the . State media reported the cockpit voice recorder was recovered. The army said the plane was bringing meat from , Kyrgyzstan "to help the country's economy."

 said the crash involved pilot error. The lone survivor was a flight engineer. The entire crew were Iranians, the army said.  said the crash was followed by a fire. Photographs showed the aircraft, ''sans'' wings, with the cockpit buried within a house and twisted engine parts strewn around.

'''' reported the failed landing at Fath, which has a much shorter runway than Payam, was a mistake and the jet was supposed to land at Payam. The industry publication stated the aircraft overran the runway and broke through a perimeter barrier. It cited the  as stating  owned the plane, and claimed a reported sixteenth death. 

In 2018 another aircraft confused the two airports, performing an emergency  at "very low height" according to ''The Aviation Herald''.

The Centre for Aviation's database of air carriers lists Saha as belonging to the Air Force and states it runs flights with Boeing 707s and s, but uses s for freight. Airfleets, a database detailing the aircraft operated by commercial carriers, states the aircraft uses the A300 and 747 as well as the . It does not, however, list any 707s. ''The Aviation Herald'' states the 707 was a freighter, despite photos showing a row of windows along each side; it lists a  of EP-CPP. 

''Wikinews'' contacted Boeing in an effort to establish the plane's initial configuration when manufactured. Boeing did not release any specific information about the initial build, telling ''Wikinews'' the company "extends its profound condolences to the families and friends of those lost... as well as our best wishes for the recovery of those injured." Boeing referred to the 707 involved as a "cargo plane".

Iran's air fleet is ageing, with sanctions restricting the purchase of both new planes and parts to maintain those already owned. 


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