Passenger Plane Veers Off Runway at Mahshahr Airport; Lands ‘at High Speed’ on Runway
A Tehran-Mahshahr passenger aircraft veered off the Mahshahr Airport runway on Monday, Esfand 7th during landing. While authorities claim this incident was due to a ‘technical malfunction,’ some accounts suggest the pilot landed at excessive speed.
According to reports in Iranian media, Reza Jafarzadeh, spokesperson for the country’s aviation organization, announced that the aircraft was a Boeing MD-type with 135 passengers aboard, all of whom are in good health.
Mehrzad Sharifi, Deputy Governor of Mahshahr, also stated that the Caspian airline aircraft was flying from Tehran to Mahshahr when it failed to land at Mahshahr Airport at 7:35 a.m. and deviated from the runway.
Iranian authorities have not yet disclosed the cause of the aircraft veering off the runway.
Marjan Tohidi, a journalist, wrote on Twitter that she was a passenger on this flight. In describing the incident, she wrote: “I was a passenger on Caspian airline flight bound for Mahshahr. The aircraft landed at high speed, continued at the same speed, and apparently hit something before stopping. It veered off the runway, and I can only say it was fate that it didn’t hit anything. I screamed the whole time. The flight attendant tried to calm the passengers.”
On the other hand, a passenger told ISNA, “After the aircraft touched down on the Mahshahr Airport runway, a horrible sound was heard and it appears the pilot could not control the aircraft as the plane’s wheels were damaged.”
Reports indicate that the incident occurred on the Mahshahr-Sarbandur belt road near the airport bridge, and this road is currently blocked with the aircraft positioned in the middle of the road.
Additionally, the CEO of the Red Crescent Society of Khuzestan announced that following the incident, one woman and one man sustained minor injuries to their legs and were transferred to a medical center.
This incident comes as on Esfand 5th, an “Iran Tour” aircraft that departed Tehran for Istanbul also returned to Tehran due to a technical malfunction and landed at Mehrabad Airport.
The recurrence of these incidents comes just weeks after the downing of a Ukrainian passenger aircraft in Tehran’s airspace. Early Wednesday morning, Esfand 18th, a Boeing 737 aircraft of Ukraine International Airlines with 176 occupants was shot down by IRGC air defense after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport on the outskirts of Tehran.
After days of insistence by Iranian authorities, claiming the aircraft crash resulted from a technical failure, the IRGC eventually announced that it had mistakenly targeted the aircraft.
Source: Voice of America
