Iran plane crash kills 115

TEHRAN -- A plane loaded with Iranian journalists slammed into a 10-story apartment building yesterday as the pilot attempted an emergency landing after developing engine trouble. At least 115 persons were killed -- 21 on the ground.

Witnesses said the C-130 plummeted to earth after ripping open the top of the building and igniting a large fire. Cars were smashed and debris was scattered over a wide area. Panicked residents fled the Towhid residential complex, a series of high-rise apartment buildings for air force personnel in the Azari suburb of Tehran.

Officials said everyone on the plane -- 84 passengers and a crew of 10 -- was killed. Most were Iranian radio and television journalists heading to cover military maneuvers in southern Iran. In addition to the 21 residents of the apartment building who died, 90 were injured, Tehran state radio said.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the building, which was damaged and charred but still standing. Several hours after the crash, the building was still smoldering. Scuffles broke out as police tried to keep thousands of onlookers from getting near the site.

Many in the crowd were screaming, afraid their relatives had been killed.

"It was like an earthquake," said Reza Sadeqi, a 25-year-old merchant who saw the plane hit the building. He said he was thrown about nine feet inside his shop by the force of the crash.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, sent condolences.

The plane, which belonged to the military, had just taken off for Bandar Abbas in southern Iran when it developed engine trouble. As it headed back to Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, the pilot was unable to maintain sufficient altitude and hit the apartment complex, state-run television said.

The report discounted sabotage or terrorism.

Witness Iraj Moradin said the plane appeared to be circling the airport when its tail suddenly burst into flames, leaving a smoke trail as it plummeted.

The C-130 is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and has four turboprop engines. The plane may have been sold to the Iranian air force when the United States had close relations with the Iranian monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In April, an Iranian military Boeing 707 with 157 persons aboard skidded off a runway at Tehran airport and caught fire, killing three. In 2003, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 persons.

In 2002, a Ukrainian-built aircraft carrying aerospace scientists crashed in central Iran, killing all 44 aboard. And in 1988, an Iran Air A300 Airbus was shot down by the USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf, killing 290.