Report by Mehr News Agency, Mashhad, Iran
Photos by Mehdi Bolourian, Mehr News Agency

An Iranian passenger aircraft caught fire on Sunday morning while it was landing in Mashhad airport in northeast Iran. Miraculously no passenger was killed or suffered major injuries in the air disaster; only 46 passengers who mostly suffered a shock were hospitalized.

Mohsen Esmaeili, the director of Mashhad's Hasheminejad airport, said only 7 passengers are in hospital.

The Russian-made Tupolev aircraft, belonging to Taban Airlines with 154 passengers and 13 crews onboard, had taken off from the central city of Isfahan to the shrine city of Mashhad.

The plane, which had first flown from the southern city of Abadan could not land in Mashhad airport on Saturday night due to bad weather and it was forced to land in Isfahan, airport officials said.

The plane took off from Isfahan to Mashhad on Sunday morning that its tail caught fire at the time of landing.

The passengers were evacuated from the plane in just 60 minutes.

Esmaeili told reporters in Mashhad that poor visibility led to the incident. Esmaeili said the captain, who said a passenger was in critical condition, insisted on landing despite warnings by the airport's control tower.

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