Video: Iranian passenger plane slides off runway

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A Caspian Airlines plane slid off the runway onto a highway on landing at an airport in southwestern Iran on Monday, Iranian state media reported. Reports claimed there were 135 passengers and seven crew members onboard the plane. All the passengers were evacuated safely. 

“It ran out of runway when landing at Mahshahr airport with no casualties,” state news agency IRNA said.

Local aviation officials said a technical issue delayed the plane's landing which caused the accident. The Iranian media said the pilot was unable to deploy the landing gear. The incident is being investigated.

Photographs of the aircraft show registration number EP-CPZ, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 built in 1994.

“The plane did not catch fire and all passengers safely left the plane,” managing Director of Khuzestan Airports Mohammad Reza Rezaei told IRNA.

An unverified video shared on social media showed an evacuation of passengers from the plane sitting in the middle of a highway in Mahshahr.

Earlier on Saturday, an Iranian airplane en route from Tehran to Istanbul made an emergency landing at a Tehran airport because of a technical problem.

Iran’s airlines have been plagued by crashes, which Iranian rulers blame on U.S. sanctions that block the airlines from replacing their ageing fleets or purchasing spare parts from the West.