Iran grounds airline’s ATR planes after crash

TEHRAN: Iran’s civil aviation organisation has grounded ATR planes belonging to Aseman Airlines after one of them crashed this week with 66 people on board, state television reported on Friday.

The measure is temporary as authorities investigate the cause of Sunday’s accident, which saw an ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service since 1993, crash in Iran’s Zagros mountains. Aseman, which is banned from flying in the European Union, operates five ATR-72s, according to the company’s website. The wreckage of the ATR, which is part-owned by Europe’s Airbus, was discovered at a height of around 4,000 metres in the Dena range but bad weather has hampered recovery efforts.