BA Boeing Co

By Aresu Iqbali and Rory Jones 

A Ukraine International Airlines jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday with at least 170 passengers and crew members on board, according to Iranian state television.

The Boeing Co. 737-800 single-aisle jet crashed after departing the Iranian capital's Imam Khomeini International Airport en route to Kyiv.

The cause of aircraft accidents can take months or years to resolve, but heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. have focused attention on potential ripple effects in the aviation industry in one of the world's busiest flight corridors, a crossroads for services between the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Ukraine International has a fleet of 40 jets, most of them modern, Western-built jetliners rented from aircraft lessors.

The airline couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Iran has a relatively poor air safety record, with its airlines and infrastructure hobbled by sanctions that led to spare shortages and the cancellation of $40 billion in new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus SE.

An Iranian air accident investigation team was headed to the crash, the spokesman for Iran's air regulator told state television. A report on casualties would come later, the spokesman said.

The crash came after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a series of strikes against two bases with U.S. troops in Iraq, which the Iranian force said were retribution for the U.S. killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Over the past year, Boeing Co. has suffered a series of technical failures with its newer-version 737 MAX aircraft. The Ukrainian 737 is an earlier model and doesn't have the flight-control feature that was implicated in crashes last year and led to Boeing grounding the MAX fleet globally.

The Wall Street Journal couldn't independently verify what caused the crash. Iranian media said it was due to a technical fault without explaining how they reached that conclusion. Determining the likely cause of a crash typically can take days or months.

Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency medical services, told state television there was a massive fire at the crash site that made it impossible to start aid operations.

Morteza Salimi, head of relief and rescue at the Red Crescent Society, told state television, "It's unlikely that anyone has survived this accident."

A Boeing spokesman said the company is aware of the media reports and is gathering information.

Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2020 00:18 ET (05:18 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.