Iranian Passenger Plane Lands Without Wheels at Mehrabad Airport

An Iranian passenger plane traveling from Qeshm Island to Tehran landed at Mehrabad Airport without its wheels, an incident that resulted in no casualties. This event occurred on the evening of Tuesday, March 19, and during this time, conflicting reports about the details have emerged. ISNA news agency quoted Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesperson for the country's emergency organization, stating that the plane caught fire after landing without wheels, but firefighters managed to extinguish the fire, and all passengers exited safely and without injury. Meanwhile, the CEO of Iran Air denied reports of a fire on the plane in an interview with Fars news agency. Farzaneh Sharafbafi stated, 'The passengers of the Fokker 100 aircraft that landed without rear wheels at Mehrabad were safely evacuated and transferred to the transit hall, and we are in the process of relocating the aircraft.' She then emphasized that 'the plane was not quarantined and no fire occurred.' In another report, Fars quoted Reza Jafarzadeh, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Organization, saying, 'The pilot's skill ensured that no harm came to the passengers, and the plane landed skillfully on the runway.' This report mentions that there were 24 passengers on the plane, two of whom were infants. Iran's aviation fleet suffers severely from aging aircraft and U.S. sanctions. Three months ago, the CEO of Iran Air stated that the company has 65 aircraft, of which only 26 are operational. Farzaneh Sharafbafi also described the conditions of the aviation industry in Iraq and Afghanistan as better than those in Iran, attributing this to sanctions. According to her, Iran struggles to replace aircraft parts due to sanctions. The aging of Iran's aviation fleet, which has led to many fatal accidents, prompted Hassan Rouhani's government to make significant purchases from Airbus and Boeing ATR following the nuclear agreement with world powers. However, while a few of these aircraft have been delivered to Iran, the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA suspended the Airbus and Boeing contracts.