They included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three British nationals, according to a tweet from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko.
A spokesperson for the airline told a press conference that the plane was last checked on January 6 and there have been no complaints previously in relation to the jet.
Yevhenii Dykhne, president of Ukraine International Airlines, said in a press conference at Kiev airport that most of the dead passengers were in transit to Ukraine to connect to further flights, he said.
A spokesman for the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office said: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in the plane crash in Iran overnight. We are urgently seeking confirmation about how many British nationals were on board and will do all we can to support any families affected."
Some of the dead were apparently students at the Sharif University of Technology Association in Tehran. Siamak Aram, a board member of SUTA, told CNN: "Yes, unfortunately at least 14 Sharif Alumni died."
A spokesperson for the German Foreign Office said: "The Federal Foreign Office and our Embassy in Tehran are in close contact with the relevant authorities to determine whether there were German citizens aboard the aircraft."
Meanwhile a spokesman for Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) urged worried relatives to get in touch. He told CNN: "A number of Swedes have lost their lives in the aircraft crash in Iran. We are now working intensively to obtain clarity about the number of Swedes who have died."
The spokesman said it is doing this "onsite in Iran, through our embassy and at the MFA in Stockholm."
He added: "The MFA has decided to activate its crisis management organization until further notice. We urge worried relatives to call the MFA on +46 8 405 92 00. We urge Swedes in Iran to contact their relatives."
Shahedshahr, Iran — A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed Wednesday just minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital's main airport, killing all on board. It turned farmland on Tehran's outskirts into fields of flaming debris.
The crash of the Ukraine International Airlines aircraft came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. Iranian officials said they suspected a mechanical issue brought down the Boeing 737-800. The Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran first posted, then deleted a website statement saying terrorism wasn't suspected.
The carrier said the plane was built in 2016 and "underwent its last planned technical maintenance" on Monday, Agence France Press (AFP) reported.
Trending News
Airline officials said most of the passengers were en route to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, transiting through there to other destinations.
Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv told CBS News passengers on that flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.
The plane had 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations. Ukraine's foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said there were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians on board — the Ukrainian nationals included two passengers and the nine crew. There were also 10 Swedish, four Afghan, three German and three British nationals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy extended his condolences to the families of the victims. His office said he had cut his visit to Oman short and was returning to Kyiv because of the crash. The country's Prime Minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, confirmed the casualty toll.
Part of the wreckage from Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, is seen in this still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
"Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims," Ukraine's parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, said in a Facebook statement.
Ukraine International Airlines said it had indefinitely suspended flights to Tehran in the wake of the crash.
"It was one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew," the airline's president, Yevhen Dykhne, said at a briefing, choking back tears. He wouldn't comment on speculation linking the crash to the Iranian missile strikes.
The carrier is privately owned and Ukraine's largest.
Initial statements by Iranian and Ukrainian authorities said a malfunction was suspected. But a statement on the Ukrainian Embassy's website saying the crash was caused by an engine problem and not terrorism was later deleted.
Zelenskiy ordered a sweeping inspection of all civil airplanes in the country, "no matter the conclusions about the crash in Iran."
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport by almost an hour. It took off to the west, but never made it above 8,000 feet, according to data from the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
It remains unclear what happened. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared one of its engines caught fire. The pilot then lost control of the plane, sending it crashing into the ground, Biniaz said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Hassan Razaeifar, the head of air crash investigation committee, said it appeared the pilot couldn't communicate with air-traffic controllers in Tehran in the last moments of the flight. He didn't elaborate.
The Reuters news agency said Iranian TV reported that one of the plane's two "black boxes" was found.
Ukrainian authorities have offered to help with the investigation.
Emergency workers work near the wreckage of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed soon after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, in a still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
The plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 1,430 mile flight, slammed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr. Videos taken immediately after the crash show blazes lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.
"The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue. … We have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site," Reuters quoted Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency services, as telling Iranian state television.
Resident Din Mohammad Qassemi said he'd been watching the news about the Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces when he heard the crash.
"I heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. There was fire everywhere," he told The Associated Press. "At first I thought (the Americans) have hit here with missiles and went in the basement as a shelter. After a while, I went out and saw a plane has crashed over there. Body parts were lying around everywhere."
The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations, Biniaz said. The crash took the lives of everyone on board, Iranian emergency officials and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
AP journalists who reached the crash site saw a wide field of field of debris scattered across farmland, the dead laying among shattered pieces of the aircraft. Their possessions, including a child's cartoon-covered electric toothbrush and a stuffed animal, luggage and electronics, stretched everywhere.
Rescuers in masks shouted over the noise of hovering helicopters as they worked. They quickly realized there would be no survivors.
"The only thing that the pilot managed to do was steer the plane towards a soccer field near here instead of a residential area back there," witness Aref Geravand said. "It crashed near the field and in a water canal."
A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 with the registration UR-PSR, taxis at Berlin Tegel airport in Germany on October 31, 2018.
JAN SEBA / REUTERS
The Boeing 737-800 is a very common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of the planes are used by airlines around the world.
Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes. Boeing built the aircraft that crashed Wednesday in 2016 and it last underwent routine maintenance on Monday, Ukraine International Airlines said.
A number of 737-800 aircraft have been involved in deadly accidents over the years.
In March 2016, a Flydubai 737-800 from Dubai crashed while trying to land at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia, killing 62 onboard. Another 737-800 flight from Dubai, operated by Air India Express, crashed in May 2010 while trying to land in Mangalore, India, killing more than 150 onboard.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. was "aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information," spokesman Michael Friedman told the AP.
Boeing, like other airline manufacturers, typically assists in crash investigations. However, that effort in this case could be affected by the U.S. sanctions campaign in place on Iran since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018.
Both Airbus and Boeing had been in line to sell billions of dollars of aircraft to Iran over the deal, which saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump's decision halted the sales.
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly for domestic carriers in recent years, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
Police have charged at least 24 people for intentionally starting bushfires in the state of New South Wales, according to a statement the New South Wales Police released Monday.
NSW Police have taken legal action against 183 people, 40 of whom are juveniles, for fire-related offenses since November 8, the statement said. The legal actions range from cautions to criminal charges.
Out of those 183 people, 53 have received cautions or criminal charges for failing to comply with a total fire ban and 47 are accused of discarding a lit cigarette or match on land, according to the police statement.
At least 24 people have died nationwide during this fire season. While the fires have touched every state in Australia, New South Wales has been the hardest hit.
The blazes have been burning across Australia for months, scorching homes and destroying entire towns. Nearly 18 million acres of land have been burned -- most of it bushland, forests and national parks, which are home to the country's native wildlife.
Nearly half a billion animals have been affected by the fires in NSW alone and millions of them are potentially dead, according to ecologists at the University of Sydney. Birds, reptiles and mammals, except bats, are among those affected. Insects and frogs aren't included in that number.
Police are cracking down on the burn ban across the state. On Sunday, a man was charged after power tools he was using allegedly sparked a fire in Mount Druitt, according to NSW Police.
Three people were charged with breaching the fire ban over the weekend. Fire services put out fires in two different towns started for cooking purposes, NSW Police said. Another man was charged after authorities found several fires lit on his property in another town.
In November, the NSW Rural Fire Service arrested a 19-year-old volunteer member on suspicion of arson, charging him with seven counts of deliberately setting fires over a six-week period.
CNN's Samantha Beech and Hande Atay Alam contributed to this report.
Shahedshahr, Iran — A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed Wednesday just minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital's main airport, killing all on board. It turned farmland on Tehran's outskirts into fields of flaming debris.
The carrier said the plane was built in 2016 and "underwent its last planned technical maintenance" on Monday, Agence France Press reported.
Trending News
Airline officials said most of the passengers were en route to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, transiting through there to other destinations.
Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv told CBS News passengers on that flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.
The plane had 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations. Ukraine's foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said there were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians on board — the Ukrainian nationals included two passengers and the nine crew. There were also 10 Swedish, four Afghan, three German and three British nationals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy extended his condolences to the families of the victims. His office said he had cut his visit to Oman short and was returning to Kyiv because of the crash. The country's Prime Minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, confirmed the casualty toll.
Part of the wreckage from Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, is seen in this still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
"Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims," Ukraine's parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, said in a Facebook statement.
Ukraine International Airlines said it had indefinitely suspended flights to Tehran in the wake of the crash.
"It was one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew," Yevhen Dykhne, president of the Ukraine International Airlines, said at a briefing.
Zelenskiy ordered a sweeping inspection of all civil airplanes in the country, "no matter the conclusions about the crash in Iran."
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport by almost an hour. It took off to the west, but never made it above 8,000 feet, according to data from the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
It remains unclear what happened. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared one of its engines caught fire. The pilot then lost control of the plane, sending it crashing into the ground, Biniaz said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Hassan Razaeifar, the head of air crash investigation committee, said it appeared the pilot couldn't communicate with air-traffic controllers in Tehran in the last moments of the flight. He didn't elaborate.
Citing initial information, the Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran said the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash wasn't caused by "terrorism," according to the Reuters news agency.
Reuters said Iranian TV reported that one of the plane's two "black boxes" was found.
Ukrainian authorities have offered to help with the investigation.
Emergency workers work near the wreckage of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed soon after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, in a still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
The plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 1,430 mile flight, slammed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr. Videos taken immediately after the crash show blazes lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.
"The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue. … We have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site," Reuters quoted Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency services, as telling Iranian state television.
Resident Din Mohammad Qassemi said he'd been watching the news about the Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces when he heard the crash.
"I heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. There was fire everywhere," he told The Associated Press. "At first I thought (the Americans) have hit here with missiles and went in the basement as a shelter. After a while, I went out and saw a plane has crashed over there. Body parts were lying around everywhere."
The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations, Biniaz said. The crash took the lives of everyone on board, Iranian emergency officials and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
AP journalists who reached the crash site saw a wide field of field of debris scattered across farmland, the dead laying among shattered pieces of the aircraft. Their possessions, including a child's cartoon-covered electric toothbrush and a stuffed animal, luggage and electronics, stretched everywhere.
Rescuers in masks shouted over the noise of hovering helicopters as they worked. They quickly realized there would be no survivors.
"The only thing that the pilot managed to do was steer the plane towards a soccer field near here instead of a residential area back there," witness Aref Geravand said. "It crashed near the field and in a water canal."
A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 with the registration UR-PSR, taxis at Berlin Tegel airport in Germany on October 31, 2018.
JAN SEBA / REUTERS
The Boeing 737-800 is a very common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of the planes are used by airlines around the world.
Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes. Boeing built the aircraft that crashed Wednesday in 2016 and it last underwent routine maintenance on Monday, Ukraine International Airlines said.
A number of 737-800 aircraft have been involved in deadly accidents over the years.
In March 2016, a Flydubai 737-800 from Dubai crashed while trying to land at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia, killing 62 onboard. Another 737-800 flight from Dubai, operated by Air India Express, crashed in May 2010 while trying to land in Mangalore, India, killing more than 150 onboard.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. was "aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information," spokesman Michael Friedman told the AP.
Boeing, like other airline manufacturers, typically assists in crash investigations. However, that effort in this case could be affected by the U.S. sanctions campaign in place on Iran since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018.
Both Airbus and Boeing had been in line to sell billions of dollars of aircraft to Iran over the deal, which saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump's decision halted the sales.
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly for domestic carriers in recent years, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
Shahedshahr, Iran — A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed Wednesday just minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital's main airport, killing all on board. It turned farmland on Tehran's outskirts into fields of flaming debris.
The plane was heading for Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
Trending News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy extended his condolences to the families of the victims. His office said he had cut his visit to Oman short and was returning to Kyiv because of the crash. The country's Prime Minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, confirmed the casualty toll.
Part of the wreckage from Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, is seen in this still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
"Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims," Ukraine's parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, said in a Facebook statement.
Ukraine International Airlines said it had indefinitely suspended flights to Tehran in the wake of the crash.
"It was one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew," Yevhen Dykhne, president of the Ukraine International Airlines, said at a briefing following the crash.
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport by almost an hour. It took off to the west, but never made it above 8,000 feet, according to data from the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
It remains unclear what happened. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared one of its engines caught fire. The pilot then lost control of the plane, sending it crashing into the ground, Biniaz said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Hassan Razaeifar, the head of air crash investigation committee, said it appeared the pilot couldn't communicate with air-traffic controllers in Tehran in the last moments of the flight. He didn't elaborate.
Citing initial information, the Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran said the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash wasn't caused by "terrorism," according to the Reuters news agency.
Reuters said Iranian TV reported that one of the plane's two "black boxes" was found.
Ukrainian authorities have offered to help with the investigation.
Emergency workers work near the wreckage of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed soon after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, in a still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
The plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 1,430 mile flight, slammed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr. Videos taken immediately after the crash show blazes lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.
"The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue. … We have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site," Reuters quoted Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency services, as telling Iranian state television.
Resident Din Mohammad Qassemi said he'd been watching the news about the Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces when he heard the crash.
"I heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. There was fire everywhere," he told The Associated Press. "At first I thought (the Americans) have hit here with missiles and went in the basement as a shelter. After a while, I went out and saw a plane has crashed over there. Body parts were lying around everywhere."
The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations, Biniaz said. The crash took the lives of everyone on board, Iranian emergency officials and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
The majority of the passengers were Iranian nationals, Russia's RIA Novosti agency reported, citing Iranian authorities. Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv told CBS News passengers on that flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.
Iranian TV said 32 of those on the flight were foreigners, Reuters reported.
AP journalists who reached the crash site saw a wide field of field of debris scattered across farmland, the dead laying among shattered pieces of the aircraft. Their possessions, including a child's cartoon-covered electric toothbrush and a stuffed animal, luggage and electronics, stretched everywhere.
Rescuers in masks shouted over the noise of hovering helicopters as they worked. They quickly realized there would be no survivors.
"The only thing that the pilot managed to do was steer the plane towards a soccer field near here instead of a residential area back there," witness Aref Geravand said. "It crashed near the field and in a water canal."
A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 with the registration UR-PSR, taxis at Berlin Tegel airport in Germany on October 31, 2018.
JAN SEBA / REUTERS
The Boeing 737-800 is a very common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of the planes are used by airlines around the world.
Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes. Boeing built the aircraft that crashed Wednesday in 2016 and it last underwent routine maintenance on Monday, Ukraine International Airlines said.
A number of 737-800 aircraft have been involved in deadly accidents over the years.
In March 2016, a Flydubai 737-800 from Dubai crashed while trying to land at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia, killing 62 onboard. Another 737-800 flight from Dubai, operated by Air India Express, crashed in May 2010 while trying to land in Mangalore, India, killing more than 150 onboard.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. was "aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information," spokesman Michael Friedman told the AP.
Boeing, like other airline manufacturers, typically assists in crash investigations. However, that effort in this case could be affected by the U.S. sanctions campaign in place on Iran since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018.
Both Airbus and Boeing had been in line to sell billions of dollars of aircraft to Iran over the deal, which saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump's decision halted the sales.
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly for domestic carriers in recent years, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
Shahedshahr, Iran — A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed Wednesday just minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital's main airport, killing all on board. It turned farmland on Tehran's outskirts into fields of flaming debris.
The plane was heading for Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
Trending News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy extended his condolences to the families of the victims. His office said he had cut his visit to Oman short and was returning to Kyiv because of the crash. The country's Prime Minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, confirmed the casualty toll.
"Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims," Ukraine's parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, said in a Facebook statement.
Ukraine International Airlines said it had indefinitely suspended flights to Tehran in the wake of the crash.
"It was one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew," Yevhen Dykhne, president of the Ukraine International Airlines, said at a briefing following the crash.
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport by almost an hour. It took off to the west, but never made it above 8,000 feet, according to data from the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
It remains unclear what happened. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared one of its engines caught fire. The pilot then lost control of the plane, sending it crashing into the ground, Biniaz said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Hassan Razaeifar, the head of air crash investigation committee, said it appeared the pilot couldn't communicate with air-traffic controllers in Tehran in the last moments of the flight. He didn't elaborate.
Citing initial information, the Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran said the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash wasn't caused by "terrorism," according to the Reuters news agency.
Reuters said Iranian TV reported that one of the plane's two "black boxes" was found.
Ukrainian authorities have offered to help with the investigation.
The plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 1,430 mile flight, slammed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr. Videos taken immediately after the crash show blazes lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.
"The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue. … We have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site," Reuters quoted Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency services, as telling Iranian state television.
Resident Din Mohammad Qassemi said he'd been watching the news about the Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces when he heard the crash.
"I heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. There was fire everywhere," he told The Associated Press. "At first I thought (the Americans) have hit here with missiles and went in the basement as a shelter. After a while, I went out and saw a plane has crashed over there. Body parts were lying around everywhere."
The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations on its flight to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Biniaz said. The crash took the lives of everyone on board, Iranian emergency officials and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
The majority of the passengers were Iranian nationals, Russia's RIA Novosti agency reported, citing Iranian authorities. Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv told CBS News passengers on that flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.
Iranian TV said 32 of those on the flight were foreigners, Reuters reported.
AP journalists who reached the crash site saw a wide field of field of debris scattered across farmland, the dead laying among shattered pieces of the aircraft. Their possessions, including a child's cartoon-covered electric toothbrush and a stuffed animal, luggage and electronics, stretched everywhere.
Rescuers in masks shouted over the noise of hovering helicopters as they worked. They quickly realized there would be no survivors.
"The only thing that the pilot managed to do was steer the plane towards a soccer field near here instead of a residential area back there," witness Aref Geravand said. "It crashed near the field and in a water canal."
The Boeing 737-800 is a very common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of the planes are used by airlines around the world.
Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes. Boeing built the aircraft that crashed Wednesday in 2016 and it last underwent routine maintenance on Monday, Ukraine International Airlines said.
A number of 737-800 aircraft have been involved in deadly accidents over the years.
In March 2016, a Flydubai 737-800 from Dubai crashed while trying to land at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia, killing 62 onboard. Another 737-800 flight from Dubai, operated by Air India Express, crashed in May 2010 while trying to land in Mangalore, India, killing more than 150 onboard.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. was "aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information," spokesman Michael Friedman told the AP.
Boeing, like other airline manufacturers, typically assists in crash investigations. However, that effort in this case could be affected by the U.S. sanctions campaign in place on Iran since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018.
Both Airbus and Boeing had been in line to sell billions of dollars of aircraft to Iran over the deal, which saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump's decision halted the sales.
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly for domestic carriers in recent years, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
Shahedshahr, Iran — A Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people crashed Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Tehran's main airport, killing all on board, Iranian state TV and Ukrainian officials said.
The plane had taken off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in the Iranian capital when one of its engines caught fire, said Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry. The pilot then lost control of the plane and it crashed, Biniaz said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The Reuters news service reported that it burst into flames.
Trending News
"The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue. … We have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site," Reuters quoted Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency services, as telling Iranian state television.
Flight data from the airport showed a Boeing 737-800 flown by Ukraine International Airlines took off Wednesday morning heading for Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, then stopped sending data almost immediately afterward, according to website FlightRadar24.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there were no survivors extended his condolences to the families of the victims. The country's prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, confirmed the casualty toll.
Zelenskiy was vacationing in Oman but was going to return to Kyiv immediately.
"Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims," said Ukraine's parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, in a Facebook statement.
Part of the wreckage from Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, is seen in this still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
Citing initial information, the Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran said the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash wasn't caused by "terrorism," according to Reuters. It added that Iranian TV said the crash was caused by technical problems.
Reuters said Iranian TV reported that one ot the plane's two "black boxes" was found.
The plane was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members, Biniaz said.
Iranian TV said 32 of those on the flight were foreigners, Reuters reported.
The majority of the passengers were Iranian nationals, Russia's RIA Novosti agency reported, citing Iranian authorities. Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv, where the plane was headed, told The Associated Press passengers on that flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.
Emergency workers work near the wreckage of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 that crashed soon after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, 2020, in a still image taken from Iran Press footage.
IRAN PRESS via Reuters
Associated Press journalists who reached the crash site saw a wide field of debris scattered across farmland. The dead lay among shattered pieces of the aircraft. Rescuers in masks shouted over the noise of hovering helicopters as they worked.
The Boeing 737-800 is a very common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short to medium-range flights. Thousands of the planes are used by carriers around the world.
A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 with the registration UR-PSR, taxis at Berlin Tegel airport in Germany on October 31, 2018.
JAN SEBA / REUTERS
Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes.
A number of 737-800 aircraft have been involved in deadly accidents over the years.
In March 2016, a Flydubai 737-800 from Dubai crashed while trying to land at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia, killing 62 onboard. Another 737-800 flight from Dubai, operated by Air India Express, crashed in May 2010 while trying to land in Mangalore, India, killing more than 150 onboard.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. said it was "aware of the media reports out of Iran" and was "gathering more information."
Boeing, like other airline manufacturers, typically assists in crash investigations. However, that effort in this case could be affected by the U.S. sanctions campaign against Iran in place since President Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018.
Both Airbus and Boeing had been in line to sell billions of dollars of aircraft to Iran over the deal, which saw Tehran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump's decision halted the sales.
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly for domestic carriers in recent years, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
