Tehran Times
Esmail Ahmadi Moqaddam has dismissed speculation that the police turboprop aircraft, which crashed in southeast Iran on Sunday, has been shot down.
“The hypothesis that the plane had been targeted is rejected, because the aircraft was flying at the altitude of 19,000 feet, and the shoulder-launched and man-portable weapons are only capable of targeting aircraft at 12,000 feet of altitude,” Ahmadi Moqaddam told reporters on Tuesday, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Technical investigations are in progress to ascertain the cause of the crash, as the main cause of the accident still remains unknown.
Earlier on Sunday, the police announced that “technical failure” or “collision with an object” were the causes of the crash, which killed all seven people aboard.
The plane had taken off from Tehran on Saturday evening and was bound for Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Balouchestan.
