TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian plane carrying 153 passengers and crew skidded off the runway and crashed Friday while landing in northeastern Iran, killing at least 17 people, the state news agency said.
Among the dead was the manager of the privately owned Aria Airlines, operator of the plane.
Television footage showed the plane sitting at an angle, its tail resting awkwardly on the ground and the mangled front end pointing toward the sky. The rest of the aircraft appeared largely intact.
The crash came just over a week after another Iranian passenger plane nose-dived into the ground after takeoff, killing all 168 people aboard.
Iran’s aging fleet is plagued by maintenance problems, blamed on financial straits and U.S. sanctions that make it harder for the country to get many types of spare parts.
The official IRNA news agency reported that in Friday’s crash, the plane’s tires failed on landing and the craft skidded into a wall. No wall was visible in the footage broadcast on TV.
