Ukrainian Airplane Crashes in Iran, Killing 176

Airline officials said most of the passengers were en route to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, transiting through there to other destinations. Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kiev told The Associated Press that passengers on this flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine after winter holidays.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky extended his condolences to the families of the victims. His office said he had cut his visit to Oman short and was returning to Kiev 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," said parliament speaker Dmytro Razumkov, in a Facebook statement.

Ukraine International Airlines said it had indefinitely suspended flights to Tehran after 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 after the crash.

Zelensky 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 is unclear what happened. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared a fire struck one of its engines. The pilot of the aircraft 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 the 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 did not elaborate. Authorities said they found the plane's black boxes, which record cockpit conversations and instrument data.

Ukrainian authorities have offered to help with the investigation. "We're preparing a group of specialists in order to help with the search operation and the investigation of the cause of the crash," Honcharuk said.

The plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 1,430-mile flight, slammed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr on the outskirts of Tehran. Videos taken after the crash show blazes lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.

Resident Din Mohammad Qassemi said he had been watching the news about the Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in revenge for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani when he heard the crash.

"I heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. There was fire everywhere," he told the AP. "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."

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. Their possessions, a child's cartoon-covered electric toothbrush, 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 crash came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

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.

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.

Such 737-800s have been the subject of inspections since last year after airlines started reporting cracks in a part that keeps wings attached to the fuselage. Boeing said in October that airlines around the world had inspected 810 planes following an order from U.S. safety regulators. Of those, 38 planes — just under 5% — needed repairs, Boeing said at the time. It is not unusual for regulators to require inspections of a specific component or area for planes that have been in service a long time.

"This is a tragic event and our heartfelt thoughts are with the crew, passengers and their families," Boeing said. "We are in contact with our airline customer and stand by them in this difficult time. We are ready to assist in any way needed."

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.

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By NASSER KARIMI and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press