Iran Air - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• 25 December 1952: Iran Air Douglas DC-3; Tehran, Iran: 27 fatalities and two survivors.
• 21 January 1980: Iran Air Boeing 727–286; near Tehran, Iran: The aircraft hit high ground in a snowstorm during the approach to land. All eight crew members and 120 passengers were killed.
• 3 July 1988: Iran Air Flight 655 was flying over the Persian Gulf on its way to Dubai from Bandar Abbas. According to the U.S. version of events, the USS Vincennes Navy cruiser mistook the airliner for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat and the cruiser shot the airliner down with a missile, killing all 16 crew and 274 passengers. While there were Iranian and American naval skirmishes, various sources including 60 Minutes and Newseek have alleged that the shoot-down was a deliberate act of aggression by the U.S Navy in the heat of Iran's 1980–1988 Gulf War against the American backed invasion of Saddam Hussein's regime into southern Iran, in which the U.S. was actively supporting Iraq with arm shipments and covert actions. The same sources claim that the captain of the U.S Navy ship implicated in the crime was harassing Iranian civilian shipping for two weeks prior to the crime. Iranians maintain it was an intentional act of barbarism. The United States called the incident a "mistake", although the Airbus airliner was over 20 times larger in size than an F-14 jet, within close proximity to the ship's long range radars. Furthermore, the United States, through Vice President George H. W. Bush, expressed regret and promised to compensate victims, but that the money would not go through the Iranian government. Newsweek published a long article titled "Sea of Lies" that largely blamed Capt. Will Rogers, the Vincennes’ commander.
• 2 January 2008: Iran Air Fokker 100 EP-IDB carrying 100 passengers skidded off the runway after its wing caught fire, when taking off for a domestic flight to Shiraz International Airport from Mehrabad Airport. No one was injured in the accident, which happened amid heavy snowfall at the airport.
• 18 November 2009: Iran Air Fokker 100 EP-CFO suffered an undercarriage malfunction on take-off from Isfahan International Airport. The aircraft was on a flight to Mehrabad Airport, Tehran when the undercarriage failed to retract. The aircraft landed at Isfahan but was substantially damaged when the left main gear collapsed. There were no casualties in this event.
• 15 January 2010: Iran Air Fokker 100 EP-IDA, operating Flight 223 was substantially damaged when the nose gear collapsed after landing at Isfahan International Airport. There were no casualties in this incident.
• 9 January 2011: Iran Air Flight 277, a Boeing 727-200 (registration EP-IRP) originating from Tehran crashed near its destination city of Orumiyeh, 460 miles northwest of Tehran. It was carrying 105 people, of whom 28 have survived. Bad weather conditions during landing lead to a go around.