From the AP wire:
January 24, 2010
20 Injured After Plane Crash Lands in Iran
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:41 a.m. ET
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's state TV's website says a Russian-made Iranian passenger plane carrying 157 has crash landed in northeastern Iran injuring at least 20 people.
The website says there is no reports yet available on the possible death toll. It says the private Taban Air plane caught fire upon landing at Mashhad airport.
The report says the plane has been seriously damaged. Iran has about a dozen Soviet-built Tu-154 airliners.
U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the fall of the Soviet Union.