Local comment from the Dubai Gulf News:
"An Iranian airliner carrying 117 people crashed into a mountain while trying to land in western Iran yesterday, killing all aboard, a senior official and local residents said.
The Russian-built Tupolev-154, belonging to Iran Air Tours, an affiliate of the state carrier Iran Air, was flying from the capital Tehran to Khorramabad when it disappeared from radar screens southwest of the city.
Low cloud and heavily overcast skies may have hampered landing, residents said. The official, who declined to be identified, said those killed - 105 passengers and the rest crew - included four government officials. Four Spaniards were also among the dead.
The latest in a series of air disasters in Iran prompted calls in parliament for the resignation of Transport Minister Ahmad Khorram and aviation agency head, Behzad Mazaheri.
"Every once in a while a plane crashes, there is some debate and then the whole thing is forgotten," MP Azam Naseripour told Iran's IRNA news agency. "No one is ready to take responsibility for the lack of air security in Iran."
Another deputy, Golamreza Barzegar said parliament was moving towards impeaching the minister if he did not resign.
In Madrid, the Spanish Foreign Ministry identified the four dead Spaniards as businessmen Jesus Maria Olazabal, Juan Carlos Goikoetxea, Joseba Mirene, Julio Ibarra. They were from the Basque region of northern Spain and worked for the Basque-based household appliance maker Fagor Arrabate.
Khorramabad lies to the east of the Zagros mountain range running along the border with Iraq. State radio said villagers in the area were startled by an explosion early in the morning.
"There is a mountain close to the airport and the plane crashed into it as it was landing," said a local resident who visited the crash site. "The plane was totally destroyed and scattered in small pieces across the mountain."
State television showed pieces of metal strewn across jagged outcrops on the side of a mountain topped with thick mist.
President Mohammad Khatami ordered a special task force to investigate the crash.
An aviation official told the television rescuers were unable to reach the crash site due to bad weather and logistical problems and that the search for the victims had been postponed until Wednesday.
He said only small pieces of the plane had been spotted in the Chegeni region of Khorramabad.
Iranian airlines have been dogged by accidents in recent years, prompting calls for greater efficiency and revamp of the the country's ageing air fleet, many of them Boeings acquired before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
U.S. sanctions bar the sale of Boeing airliners to the Islamic Republic and hinder the acquisition of other aircraft, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines or other components. Iran has turned to Russia and Ukraine for cheaper planes.
Last May, a Russian-built Yakovlev Yak-40 plane carrying 30 people, including the transport minister and seven MPs, crashed near the northern town of Sari killing all on board.
Following that crash, Iranian legislators called for tighter aircraft safety controls and an end to the use of planes from the countries of the former Soviet Union.
In Moscow, Tupolev design chief Alexander Shingart discounted suggestions that the Tupolev-154 which crashed yesterday had suffered a technical failure.
"It was one of the last aircraft to come off the line and underwent repairs in June 2000 and in January it underwent regulatory maintenance. The plane was brought up to tip-top shape and everything was checked," he told Ekho Moskvy radio."