F-5 fighter plane crash kills three in north-west Iran

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F-5 Fighter Plane Crash Kills Three In North-West Iran
Firefighters extinguish the blaze at the scene of the fighter jet crash, © AP/Press Association Images
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By AP Reporters

Three people have died after a fighter jet crashed into a stadium in a city in north-west Iran, according to reports.

The state-run news agency IRNA said the crash killed two pilots and a civilian.

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The F-5 fighter crashed in a residential area of Tabriz, a city of 1.6 million residents. Authorities are investigating the incident.

General Reza Yousefi, commander of the air base in Tabriz, said the jet had been used for training and suffered a technical problem in the air.

“Pilots could not reach the runway,” he said.


The wreckage of the fighter jet
The wreckage of the fighter jet (Tasnim News agency via AP)

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Gen Yousefi added that in an effort to avoid crashing into the residential area, the pilots guided the jet to the stadium.

The report quoted Gen Yousefi as saying: “The Pilots sacrificed themselves – they could (have) used the ejection system, but they refused to do it.”

Instead, they headed for the stadium “to keep people safe”, he added.

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A state TV reporter at the crash scene said the plane went down on a football pitch and because the width of the pitch was not long enough, it left the pitch and hit a school wall.

No one was inside. Schools were closed amid Iran’s sixth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran’s air force has an assortment of US-made military aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

It also has Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi planes. Decades of Western sanctions have made it hard to maintain the aging fleet.

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