TEHRAN — Rescue teams finally managed to find the black box of the ATR72 plane, which crashed on February 18 in Yasouj, southwestern Iran, killing all people on board.

The twin-engine turboprop plane, operated by Aseman Airlines, with some 60 passengers and six crew on board crashed into the Dena mountain range after vanishing from the radars for about an hour.

While search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the scene the foggy and stormy mountainous region made it almost impossible for the rescue workers to spot the plane and the victims of the deadly crash in the first place. 

Red Crescent Society couldn’t dispatch any helicopters because of the bad weather but they sent a drone to the area. The rescue teams were also unable to fly over the crash site in helicopters. Instead, they had to climb Mount Dena, which has an elevation of about 14,500 feet.

Finally on February 20 the wreckage and bodies were found. However, poor weather conditions hindered search operations and it took two weeks for the search and rescue teams to finally manage to find the black box and some of the bodies.

According to IRNA news agency currently some of the bodies are recovered and transferred to Yasouj forensics for DNA tests. The exact number of bodies found on the crash site are not announced yet. 

Moreover, as per another news piece by ISNA news agency the black box which was found on Saturday was handed over to the authorities on Sunday. 

The true cause of the tragic incident is yet to be decided. 

MQ/MG