17 killed in Iran air accident

17 killed in Iran air accident At least 17 people were killed on Friday in a plane accident in Iran's second city of Mashhad, the second deadly air crash to hit the Islamic republic in 10 days, the official IRNA news agency reported. "There was an accident and a fire involving a passenger plane from Tehran to Mashhad that has left 17 people dead and 19 injured," IRNA said, quoting the deputy governor of Khorasan province, Ghahreman Rashid. Rashid identified the plane as a Russian-designed Ilyushin and said it carried 153 passengers. "All the dead and injured people and passengers have been evacuated and the fire has been completely controlled," Rashid said, according to IRNA. The news agency quoted an informed source as saying that the aircraft's wheels had caught fire on landing leading to it veering off the runway and bumping into a wall. The accident happened at 6:10 pm (1340 GMT), it added. State television reported that the accident occurred as the plane was landing at the international airport in Mashhad, a popular Shiite Muslim pilgrimage centre in northeastern Iran, giving an initial death toll of 15. "The plane... had a technical glitch," state television said quoting the director of the public relations department at Mashhad's Hashemi Najad airport, who was identified by his surname Pirhandeh. The Ilyushin 62 aircraft was reportedly run by independent Iranian firm Aria Air which offers flights from the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas to Tehran as well as from Mashhad