An Iranian airliner made an emergency landing Monday morning and slid off the runway onto a highway in southwestern city of Mahshahr, but all 135 passengers were evacuated safely, without any injuries.
"The Caspian Airlines Boeing Flight No. 6936 with 135 passengers had left Tehran for Mahshahr on early Monday morning. It ran out of runway when landing at Mahshahr airport with no casualties," state news agency IRNA reported.
A video of the evacuation posted on line shows a twin-engine plane, with the engines in the rear. In photos the writing on the engines says McDonnell Douglas, while Iranian sources say it was a Boeing. It is not clear when the plane was built, but Boeing acquired McDonnel Douglas in 1997.
The plane blocked a highway at the outskirts of the city, but local officials said it will be moved in the afternoon.
IRNA, quoting local aviation officials, said a technical issue delayed the plane's landing which caused the accident.
"The plane did not catch fire and all passengers safely left the plane," managing Director of Khuzestan Airports Mohammad Reza Rezaei told IRNA.
Iran’s state TV reported that the planes landing gear did not drop and as it landed it skidded off the runway onto a city street.
On Saturday, an Iranian airplane en route from Tehran to Istanbul made an emergency landing at a Tehran airport because of a technical problem, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Iran's airlines have been plagued by crashes, which Iranian rulers blame on U.S. sanctions that block the airlines from replacing their ageing fleets or purchasing spare parts from the West.
