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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Plane crash kills 28 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard |
| 2006-11-27 |
 Posted on the wire at 12:44 AM EDT.TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian state television reported Monday that a plane crashed in Tehran, killing 28 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard, including high-ranking officers. The plane crashed shortly after taking off from an airport in Tehran, the report said. It did not specify when the crash occurred or give further information about those killed. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #42 Maybe one of those hefty engines swallowed a flying carpet ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-11-27 22:51 |
| #41 Gee, were they by any chance more conservative members of the RG? |
| Posted by: Uneagum Spinter2998 2006-11-27 20:30 |
| #40 Planes are devices that defy Nature by their very design, and Nature will get hers back when she can. Add in the "Insallah" attitude to maintenance, the American embargo, the perfidy of Russian and Ukrainian parts suppliers, and the general lack of technical competence on the part of the ground crews, and it is not surprising that Iranian aircraft crash on a regular basis. Hell, the Indians have problems with their Russian aircraft {look at all the crashed MiGs}, and they are better at maintenance than the Iranians. By the way, I mentioned a few weeks back that air forces are a known source of coups in Third World countries. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-11-27 18:53 |
#39  ? Heavily loaded, short-field, lack of faith? Looks like a safe plane to fly off a garbage strip. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-11-27 17:48 |
| #38 Nuts. There were 3 empty seats. |
| Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 2006-11-27 17:42 |
| #37 Update: TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian military plane has crashed on takeoff at Tehran's Mehrabad airport killing all 39 people on board, including 30 members of the Revolutionary Guards, police said. High ranking Iranian police commander, Eskandar Moemeni, told the Fars news agency Monday that three people who initially survived the crash of the Antonov 74 died on their way to hospital. "An engine failure and veering from the runway resulted in the crash," he said, adding that the others killed were crew members. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-11-27 16:28 |
| #36 Actually, this is probably a continuation of a long series of problems that Iran has with maintenance and equipment. The mechanics who work on the aircraft have to be loyal, but not necessarily technically proficient. Only a couple of the C-130s that Iran has (out of about 70) are still flyable (Brunei is still flying all of their initial deliver of two, received about the same time as the Shah took possession of his). Pilots get about 20 hours a QUARTER of non-mission practice time, and only about a third of their aircraft of any type are considered flyable. Memorizing the Quran isn't quite the same as understanding tech manuals and NOTAMS. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-11-27 16:16 |
| #35 "Thank you for flying Air America. My name is Al Franken and I'll be your Captain." "Just sit tight folks and relax for a moment, we'll be in the air ahead of schedule and this afternoons' flight will be a short one." "Allan Ackbar" |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2006-11-27 15:38 |
| #34 One wonders if they were flying Air America, AM or FM. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2006-11-27 15:05 |
| #33 Just the latest in the Mad Mullah's 'Right-sizing' effort. Couple that with the recent replacement of some of DInnerjacket's top dudes and pretty soon only the (rest of) the idiots will be running the palace. Maybe for their next trip, they should use the short bus...... |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2006-11-27 13:54 |
| #32 Of course Mohammed flew. But he was riding that special horse of his, which he refuses to share with his spiritual decendents, even if they do mean to reestablish the Caliphate. Lots of interesting stories here at Rantburg, exJAG dear. Ask .com about his adventures in Saudi Arabia, or 3dc about his father's as a missionary in Asia (or his own as the child who went with them). Or about the lovely Mrs. 3dc, who had adventures of her own, or .... Truly an amazing depth of life experience to be found here at Rantburg. You'll need all your fingers, though, to hold your teacup while you sip and listen, so Nimble Spemble will just have to be satisfied with unscarred digits. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-27 12:56 |
| #31 actually Mo did fly to the furthest mosque (in 17-1 of the Quran) |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-11-27 12:05 |
| #30 TW, that is soooo cool. What proud traditions in your family. I was going to ask if NS would still be thrilled if I told him I was missing a couple fingers, but I haven't been adventurous enough to lose any. Yet. :) |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-11-27 12:04 |
| #29 Hmmmmmm. Maybe this happens a lot over there because they've got lousy airplanes, flown by lousy pilots and maintained by lousy mechanics? Maybe their Air Force, like, sucks? And if Allah had wanted man to fly, wouldn't he have given him wings? I'll bet Mo didn't fly, right? Run that one by the 12th Imam. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-11-27 11:42 |
| #28 Didn't someone (Oldspook?) mention that traditionally, coup attempts come from the Airforce? That last lawndart bus had several high-ranking officers on it and I think it happened under similar conditions. In one way it may be good news, but it might also have been the crash victims were Iranians opposed to Ahmadinjabob or the Mullahs and were thus liquidated. |
| Posted by: Anon4021 2006-11-27 11:37 |
| #27 #16 its not a certainty (only .95) |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-11-27 10:56 |
| #26 Sound like they are downsizing. I bet they didn't pass the loyalty test this year. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-11-27 10:55 |
| #25 That'd be 28 meteroid worshippers needing a total of 2016 rasins upon entrence to hell. Say hello to allah for Keith Ellison LOL! |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2006-11-27 09:55 |
| #24 Maybe we should make them fight us here. They might not be able to make it. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2006-11-27 09:53 |
| #23 "Yo! Taxi!" |
| Posted by: mrp 2006-11-27 09:35 |
| #22 from a James Robbins post at the NR Corner: In January 2006 the head of the Pasdaran [Revol. Guard] ground forces and several other high ranking officers were killed in another plane crash. In December 2005 yet another transport went down, the passengers mainly journalists traveling to cover naval maneuvers. In 2004 a planeload of Iranian aerospace scientists were killed in a plane crash. In 2003 a troop carrier crashed killing 276 Pasdaran |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-11-27 08:57 |
| #21 GAURD-"We will make it in the air God Willing" Where do I send the poison oak? |
| Posted by: plainslow 2006-11-27 08:37 |
| #20 It would be a real shame if there were empty seats. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-11-27 08:16 |
| #19 Always the possibility, exJAG. Off topic, in response to your question about my father and explosions yesterday: yes, he was Haganah, the pet chemist because he was a bit younger than Moshe Dayan and all. His mother used to kaffeeklatsch with Golda Meir at the moshav, when they'd plan out the primary and secondary education program (my grandmother had been superintendent of the Jewish school system in Riga, Latvia before emigrating in 1934, and before that had been part of the group of intellectuals that had regularized Latvian in the early part of the century, creating a proper language from what had been a peasant dialect). Daddy was a lab technician at the Technion, working on fertilizers and pesticides during the day... at least until he blew up the lab after hours. Then he got to be the guinia pig for the surgeons -- as my mother tells the tale, they'd been thrilled at the opportunity to practice skin grafting, not to mention making a new thumb from a bit of thigh bone (Mr. Wife found that first handshake memorable!), and the insurance money paid for his PhD (all agreed that promoting Daddy away from the bench was a good idea.) ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-27 08:14 |
| #18 exJag may be on to something Under Saddam, bigwigs who were thought to be a threat frequently were offed in helo accidents. Iran simply goes for the fixed wing version. |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-11-27 08:14 |
| #17 "Ooops" |
| Posted by: Mullah Rightousness Division 2006-11-27 07:58 |
| #16 Any possibility these "unfortunate accidents" are just good old-fashioned purges of troublemakers in the ranks? |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-11-27 07:30 |
| #15 Smells like fastidious housekeeping. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-11-27 07:28 |
| #14 It's not poor maintainance, and it's not enemy action. I think they need to start strict drug and alcohol testing of their mechanics and pilots. Think about it - if you were subject to all the public restrictions on normal behavior, wouldn't you want to toke up and forget about it? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-11-27 07:24 |
| #13 WasnÂ’t there had nothing to do with it. Hehehe |
| Posted by: Joe of the Jungle 2006-11-27 06:04 |
| #12 The Beeb forgot to blame this on the American parts embargo thingy... incredible. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-11-27 04:29 |
| #11 Well, SPoD, sort of - Chernobyl. There were a couple of Russian based reactors in Czech before Velvet Revolution. They sort of ran, leaking here and there, and always a step from an accident. I am not sure about their fate, but either they were closed down or re-fitted with some more reliable gear, possibly Candu or such, 's been a while so I am fuzzy on that. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-11-27 04:07 |
| #10 Problem is all there planes mostly are Russian no embargo on those parts. Just hope their nuclear program is as well run as there avation sector is. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-11-27 03:31 |
| #9 I remember when the last plane crashed that the TV channel Euronews blamed the accident on the US because it had an embargo on its airplane parts to Iran. I guess some embargos do work after all! |
| Posted by: Tholuque Phager7978 2006-11-27 02:59 |
| #8 Strikes me that they might want to outsource their aircraft maintenance. This is getting to be embarrassing. Their planes are crashing at this rate under peacetime conditions. Imagine how bad things will get when they're under air attack by Uncle Sam, and parts and supply depots are getting blown up. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-11-27 02:42 |
| #7 I'm really going to lose some sleep over this. Partying, that is. Fuck Iran, fuck it's damned elite thugs and fuck Tehran's mullahs straight to eternal hell. Party time! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-11-27 02:28 |
| #6 The Soviets used to have these sorts of accidents regularly. Hard on the pilots and stewardesses, though. |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-11-27 02:18 |
| #5 Anybody know where I can send flowers? |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-11-27 02:03 |
| #4 Steve, yes, remembering meter got pegged. The last plane crash was filled with "journalists", whatever that is supposed to mean, but before that, it was some RG bigwigs, as far as I recall. Anyway, seems planes are crashing there almost with a regularity. Wonder why... Old decrepit has been parts? Maintenance ineptitude? I would presume these or similar causes, before turning to some form of enemy influence. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-11-27 01:52 |
| #3 Aww damn! |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-11-27 01:38 |
| #2 Hmmm, wasn't there another plane crash a couple months ago that took out some biggies in the IRG? As they say, once is an accident, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. Or maybe just will-of-allan style maintenance. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-11-27 01:07 |
| #1 damn shame - hope there were some bigwigs cremated |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-11-27 01:07 |