All 65 people aboard an Aseman Airlines ATR-72 turboprop were killed when the aircraft crashed in bad weather in the mountains of southern Iran Sunday. The aircraft hit Mt. Dena, which is almost 14,000 feet tall, while on approach to Yasuj on a flight from Tehran just after midnight. Wind, snow and dense fog prevented searchers from immediately reaching the scene and when they did get there they found no survivors among the 59 passengers and six crew. It was the second major airliner crash in a week and new details have emerged about the earlier crash of regional jet in Russia two weeks ago.
Investigators now believe pitot tube icing resulted in false airspeed indications and likely contributed to the crash of the Saratov Airlines An-148 shortly after takeoff from Domodedovo Airport last Sunday. The data was retrieved from the flight data recorder and investigators are still analyzing the cockpit voice recorder. The two crashes come after the safest year ever in world airline operations. In 2017 there were no fatal accidents involving mainstream carriers and only two fatal accidents involving scheduled passenger flights. One passenger died 12 days after a West Wind Aviation ATR 42 crashed in northern Saskatchewan on Dec. 13 and all 12 people aboard a Nature Air Flight died in a New Year’s Eve crash in Costa Rica.
