Crash kills Iran Revolutionary Guards chief
Last Updated: Monday, January 9, 2006 | 2:38 PM ET
CBC News
Related
Internal Links
Ahmad Kazemi, a veteran of Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq, was one of the country's most powerful military officials. The Guards are a parallel military structure with ground, sea and air elements pledged to defend Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
The crash killed at least 11 people and by some accounts as many as 15. Among the dead are Kazemi's deputy, his artillery chief and at least five other officers, some or all of them members of the Guards' ground command council.
A history of aviation disasters
Wreckage of Falcon passenger jet of the Revolutionary Guards in northwestern Iran. (AP Photo)
The jet, a Dassault Falcon, was being used as a military passenger plane in a country with a shaky record of flight safety and aircraft maintenance.
Last month, a U.S.-built Hercules military transport crashed into an apartment building in Tehran, killing about 115 people. In 2003, a Russian-built Ilyushin-76 carrying Guards members crashed in mountainous terrain, killing as many as 302.
Guards plane crashed near Orumiyeh, in Iran's far northwest
- FROM DEC. 8, 2005: Massive funeral procession for Iran's air-crash victims
The Mehr news agency said both of the Falcon's engines failed. Other reports said the difficulties included jammed landing gear, bad weather and poor visibility as the pilots tried to land at Orumiyeh, in northwestern Iran.
The plane hit ground at a village about 12 kilometres from the airport, the IRNA news agency said.
In his message of condolence, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said:
"What can help us bear the departure of the beloved soldiers of the Islamic republic is that they have done much to serve the Iranian nation. ...
"Blood of the devotees of the motherland would join the blood of the soldiers of beloved Iran and the Islamic republic who dedicated their blood for the cause of honour and dignity of the nation."
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Ottawa wins appeal to block RCMP union
- The Ontario Court of Appeal has rejected a 2009 lower court ruling that RCMP officers' Charter rights are violated by regulations forbidding a union. more »
- 2,000 jobs cut as GM to close Oshawa plant
- The Canadian Auto Workers union says General Motors is going ahead with plans to close its consolidated plant in Oshawa, Ont. more »
- Diamond Jubilee: Your photos of royal encounters
- The CBC Community team asked you to submit your best photos of the Queen's visits to Canada, or visits by any member of the Royal Family. The result was tremendous! more »
- New duty-free limits will challenge Canadian retailers
- Cross-border shoppers may welcome increased duty-free limits that kick in Friday, but those changes will magnify problems Canadian retailers are having with the noticeable price gaps between Canada and the U.S. more »
Latest World News Headlines
- Gaza border clash kills Palestinian militant, Israeli soldier
- A Palestinian militant infiltrated into Israel and set off a shootout that left the infiltrator and one Israeli soldier dead, the military says. more »
- Mistrial declared in John Edwards case
- The campaign fraud trial of disgraced former U.S. senator John Edwards ended on Thursday with an acquittal on one of six counts and a mistrial declared on the remaining charges. more »
- Diamond Jubilee: Your photos of royal encounters
- The CBC Community team asked you to submit your best photos of the Queen's visits to Canada, or visits by any member of the Royal Family. The result was tremendous! more »
- How manhunts work
- A nation-wide manhunt, like the one being undertaken to find suspected killer Luka Rocco Magnotta, is a highly co-ordinated exercise that isn't quite as gritty or dramatic as it may seem in TV police shows. more »
Dispatches »
- Child "bomberitos" on Peru's most dangerous highway May. 31, 2012 3:34 PM The bomberito children of the Andes hitch homemade carts to passing transport trucks -- to aid motorists and victims of disasters in mountains that were once the domain of Peru's Shining Path rebels. They risk their lives for tips that help feed their families.
Connect Newsroom Blog
The Hunt for Magnotta and #bullyPROOF May. 31, 2012 7:32 PM Tonight we'll take you deep inside the dark recesses of the internet for a closer look what's being posted and who watching it.
- Body-parts victim ID'd as Chinese student in Montreal
- Edmonton teacher suspended for giving 0s
- Owner defends 'gore' site connected to Luka Magnotta
- New duty-free limits will challenge Canadian retailers
- Quebec student talks collapse and more protests loom
- Tree faller plunges to death as bucket breaks
- Bear pulls corpse from car near Kamloops
- 5 movie trailers that raise the bar
- Man shot to death in Clayton Park
