A military plane crashed in Iran’s Hamedan province, killing one pilot, Fars Agency reported.
Yesterday Thursday evening, Iran’s military announced that a military plane belonging to its air force crashed in Hamedan province in the west of the country, killing one of the two pilots on board and the other surviving.
The Air Force Public Affairs Office said in a statement that the plane was involved in the accident “while performing a night training mission” and stressed that the cause of the accident was still under investigation, but did not provide further details about the type of plane or the circumstances of the crash.
Aviation experts said the plane, an F-4E Phantom II, was likely flying over the region’s airspace when it came under fire from air defense systems belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Forces.
Aviation expert Babak Takvai said the plane, belonging to the 31st Tactical Fighter Squadron, was hit during the mission, but the two pilots were able to return it to the 3rd Tactical Air Base in Hamedan. He added that the landing wheels did not fully open and the aircraft veered off the runway after making an emergency landing.
According to these sources, Colonel Mehdi Firouzmand died in the incident, but his assistant survived by using an ejection seat. The article states that the pilot reported hearing explosions and crashes at the bottom of the plane before the emergency landing and before declaring a state of emergency.
