Plane carrying 66 people crashes in Iran after disappearing from flight radar

An Aseman Airlines flight carrying dozens of passengers from Tehran to Yasuj in Iran has crashed in a mountainous area, according to reports that stated all 66 people on board had died.

The plane crashed in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom, the news agency ISNA quoted emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi as saying.

The airline's public relations director, Mohammad Tabatabai, had released a statement saying that everyone on the plane had died, however, he retracted the statement soon after.

"Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane," he told the ISNA news agency.

A report identified the plane as an ATR-72.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes.