Iran Air Boeing 727 accident near Rasht
Boeing 727-286Adv · An accident involving an Iran Air Boeing 727 occurred on 9 June 1996 near Rasht during a training flight
From Mehrabad International Airport (THR) to Rasht Airport, Rasht, Iran
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 3
- 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
- 3
- 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
Boeing 727-286Adv
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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-IRU
- Operator
- Iran Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Mehrabad International Airport (THR)To Rasht Airport, Rasht, Iran
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
An accident involving an Iran Air Boeing 727 occurred on 9 June 1996 near Rasht during a training flight. In the crash of the Boeing 727-286Adv involved, four of the seven occupants were killed.
Sequence of events
During the flight training, repeated touch-and-go manoeuvres were flown with the aircraft. After the fifteenth manoeuvre of this kind, the pilots set the aircraft down with the landing gear retracted, as they had forgotten to extend it. The aircraft slid on its belly along the runway over a length of 2100 m; the pilots then nevertheless took off again with the badly damaged aircraft. Meanwhile a fire had developed in the rear fuselage area. The aircraft flew holding patterns over the airport. The landing gear was extended manually and air traffic control issued clearance to land on runway 09. Meanwhile the fire spread and damaged the flight systems. The captain found it difficult to keep the aircraft under control. Five kilometres west of the airport the left wing grazed the ground, whereupon the aircraft crashed into a rice field and broke apart. Of the seven crew members, four were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
A number of factors were cited as causes of the accident:
flight crew did not respond to the aural warning signal that warned them before touching down with the landing gear retracted
the crew did not properly go through the landing checklist
deficient crew resource management (CRM)
the pilot in charge had forgotten to extend the landing gear
the aircraft sliding on its fuselage for a duration of 30 seconds and a distance of 2100 metres of runway length
continuing the flight for a period of 9 minutes and 30 seconds despite the fire and smoke on board
the eventual failure of the flight control systems
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing 727 der Iran Air bei Rascht” (revision 269743601, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing 727 der Iran Air bei Rascht
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269743601 · 2026-08-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q84955156
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing 727 der Iran Air bei Rascht" (page 10922685, revision 269743601), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.