Russian made Iran plane hits airport wall and 17 were killed

On Friday, Russian made passenger aircraft swerved off the runway and hit a wall while landing at Mashhad airport in northeastern Iran around 6:20 pm. At least 17 people were killed and 23 injured at that time.

An Ilyushin Il-62 plane leased by Iran's Aria Tour from Kazakhstan, left the runway and crashed into a boundary wall, state television said.

There were 153 people flown to Mashhad from Tehran and 13 of the dead were crew members out of which 9 people dead were from Kazakhstan.

Ali Ilkhani, director of Iran's civil aviation told state television that the plane appeared to have tried to land while flying too fast. 

Mohammad-Reza Moti, a provincial emergency aid official told the state news agency IRNA that the injured were being treated in hospitals in Mashhad, an important pilgrimage site for Shi'ite Muslims.

One passenger says state television "We felt the plane hit uneven ground right after landing ... after the emergency exit was opened, no one dared to jump because it was too high, so we got out over the wing."

Television showed images of the plane with its nose section badly damaged and said the accident was due to a malfunction in the front landing wheels. It said that the pilot was among the dead.

This crash was the second deadly accident involving an Iranian airliner since July 15 when a Caspian Airlines plane crashed near the city of Qazvin, northwest of Tehran, killing all 168 on board.

Here are some more photos of Plane crash