The plane, which was heading from Tehran to Urumiyeh in northwest Iran, crashed at 9:30 a.m. local time in a village near the city, 10 kilometers from the Urumiyeh airport.
The Armed Forces headquarters issued a statement citing the failure of the plane’s two engines as the cause of the crash.
IRGC Public Relations Office Deputy Director Yadollah Rabii told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that the military officials were accompanying Major General Kazemi in a periodic visit to the region.
He noted that the pilot had initially reported a technical failure of the plane’s wheels and then in its two engines, after which he failed to make a safe landing due to bad weather conditions.
Following is the list of the names of the eleven military personnel killed in the crash as announced by Rabii:
(1) Major General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of IRGC Ground Forces;
(2) Brigadier General Saeed Mohtadi Jafari, commander of Rasulollah Division 27 of the IRGC;
(3) Brigadier General Saeed Soleimani, deputy commander for operational affairs of the IRGC Ground Forces;
(4) Brigadier General Nabiollah Shahmoradi, deputy commander for intelligence affairs of the IRGC Ground Forces;
(5) Brigadier General Abbas Karbandi-Mojarad, commander of the Qadr Air Base of the IRGC Air Force (the plane's pilot);
(6) Brigadier General Gholam-Reza Yazdani, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Artillery Unit;
(7) Brigadier General Safdar Reshadi, deputy commander for planning of the IRGC Ground Forces;
(8) Brigadier General Ahmad Elhaminejad, commandant of the IRGC Air Force Academy (the plane’s copilot);
(9) Brigadier General Hamid Azinpur, the commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Command Office;
(10) Colonel Morteza Basiri, flight engineer;
(11) Mohsen Asadi, bodyguard of the IRGC Ground Forces commander.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei expressed his condolences over the fatal crash in a statement on Monday.
In his message, the Leader praised Major General Kazemi for his brave struggles during the 1980-1988 Iraqi-imposed war on Iran and expressed his condolences to the Iranian nation and the bereaved families over the martyrdom of the military officials.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, West Azarbaijan Province Governor General Rahim Qorbani, and a number of other officials also sent messages of condolences and sympathy over the incident.
MS/HG
End
MNA
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