Plane catches fire at Tehran airport

An airliner caught fire on landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport yesterday but all 100 passengers were evacuated without injury, the head of Iran’s emergency department Pir-Hossein Kolivand said on state television.

The fire broke out after the aircraft’s landing gear did not open properly, and was later brought under control, Kolivand said.

The pilot was unable to open the back wheels of the plane and circled the airport attempting to open all the wheels before landing the plane on its body, according to Fars news agency.

The plane was a Fokker 100 belonging to Iran Air, Fars reported. Other agency reports said it was flying from an Iranian island in the Gulf to the capital.

Head of public relations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation Reza Jafarzadeh said the plane had 24 passengers and 9 crew. It did not give any explanation for the discrepancy in the figures, IRIB news agency reported.