Yesterday at about 12:50 Armenian time a plane operating a Caspian Airlines commercial flight from Tehran to Yerevan crashed in northwest Iran, near the city of Qazvin. It crushed 16 minutes after the take-off. Unfortunately the crush of the TU-154 airplane killed all the 153 passengers and 15 crew on board. The list of the victims published by the Armenian Head Department of Civil Aviation shows most of the passengers were Iranians and Armenians. 35 of the passengers had Armenian last names and 4 of them were Armenian citizens. 2 of the crew members were Armenian as well. They were working on a contract basis for the Caspian Airlines. The reasons of the accident are not known yet but there are several versions mainly connected with technical malfunctions and possibility of fire in the engine of the plane. The intergovernmental aviation committee yesterday said that it was going to send experts to Iran to conduct expertise of the crush of the TU-154 airplane. The President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has declared July 16, a day of mourning in Armenia after a plane operating a Caspian Airlines Tehran-Yerevan flight crashed by killing all 168 people on board, including many citizens of Armenia and ethnic Armenians.
