Reports: At least 39 die in passenger plane crash in Tehran

By Shirzad Bozorgmehr, Brian Walker and Ben Brumfield, CNN

August 11, 2014 -- Updated 0326 GMT (1126 HKT)

Iranian Revolutionary Guards and police officers inspect the site of a passenger plane crash in Tehran, Iran's capital.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Black boxes found as Iran media outlets differ on death toll
• The plane crashed shortly after leaving the runway
• The crash also injured people on the ground, including employees at a glass factory
• Some of those hurt suffered severe burns

Tehran (CNN) -- A passenger plane crashed in Tehran on Sunday, killing at least 39 people on board, official news agencies in Iran reported.

The Antonov-140 propeller plane went down shortly after leaving the runway at Mehrabad International Airport after an engine failed, the FARS semiofficial news agency reported.

Sepahan Airlines Flight 5915 was carrying 40 passengers and a crew of eight when it went down, according to official news reports.

Though the Islamic Republic News Agency and Tehran Times initially said that all crew and passengers were killed, Press TV reported 37 people died in the crash, two more died at a Tehran hospital and nine others were in critical condition with serious burns.

IRNA later said that 40 people had been killed.

"Both black boxes of Iran-140 airplane of Hesa Co. (Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company) were found in search operations," Ahmad Majidi, Iran's deputy minister of roads and urban development, told the Iranian Students' News Agency, according to Press TV.

The crash also injured people on the ground, including employees at a glass factory, FARS said.

Some of the injured suffered severe burns, Tasnimnews reported.

A witness told FARS that the tail of the plane fell from the sky first, and the front of the plane crashed farther away.

Rescue workers were still working Sunday afternoon to remove bodies from the wreckage, Tasnimnews said.