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Iran Airtour Flight 956

12 Feb 2002 · Mount Sefid Kuh, Kermanshah, Iran

Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154M · Controlled flight into terrain in poor visibility

From Mehrabad International Airport (THR) to Khoram Abad Airport (KHD)

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
119 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
119
Survivors
0
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline

Tupolev Tu-154M

Flight
B9956
Aircraft type
Tupolev TU-154
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
EP-MBS
Onboard fatalities
119
Route
From Mehrabad International Airport (THR)To Khoram Abad Airport (KHD)

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

Iran Air Tours Flight 956 was a Tupolev Tu-154M which crashed 230 mi south-west of Tehran on 12 February 2002. During a non precision approach to runway 11 of Khorramabad Airport, the airliner impacted the Kuh-e Sefid Mountain at an altitude of 9,100 ft, 3 nmi left of the runway centerline. All 12 crew and 107 passengers were killed in the crash. The aircraft was carrying four government officials. It remains the 5th worst plane crash in Iranian history.

Crash

Flight 956 of Iran Air Tours departed from Tehran to Khorramabad at 7:30 a.m. with 12 crew members and 107 passengers on board. Among the passengers were 4 government officials and at least 4 Spanish passengers. The landing was carried out in bad weather conditions, with the crew deviating 3 km from the left axis of the runway. Approximately 15 mi from the airport, at an altitude of 9,100 ft above sea level, the Tu-154 crashed into the Kuh-e Sefid mountain near the village of Sarab-e Dowreh and exploded. All 119 occupants on board were killed. Firstly, newspapers mistakenly indicated 117 dead. It is said that the aircraft could not perform the required IFR approach due to the airport not having the Soviet style navigation aides and was performing a VFR approach instead in bad weather conditions. Based on the CVR, the copilot warned the captain of the aircraft warnings but was ignored because of captain's over-confidence.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Iran Airtour Flight 956” (revision 1351570475, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: Iran Airtour Flight 956
Article
Iran Airtour Flight 956
Revision
1351570475 · 2026-04-28 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q11737216
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "Iran Airtour Flight 956" (page 40019299, revision 1351570475)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
airline flight number in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.