IRAN - Dec. 22 - Ukrainian Plane Crashes Killing 46.

A Ukrainian passenger Antonov-140 aircraft, flight AHW 2137, carrying aerospace experts, crashes 45 miles from Ardestan, south of Tehran, at 1600 GMT, killing all 46 people on board. The passengers are senior Ukrainian aircraft industry officials travelling to Isfahan to test a new plane. Transport Minister Ahmad Khorram told Reuters in Islamabad: "All 46 passengers including the crew have been killed. I am very sorry". The plane, carrying 42 passengers and four crew, originated in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and refuelled in the Black Sea city of Trabzon in north-eastern Turkey. Iran has been manufacturing the Antonov-140 aircraft, dubbed Iran-140, under a licence from Ukraine in Isfahan. The 52-seat twin-turboprop had its first public test flight in Feb. 2001. Khorram said: "It was the same model plane that we are developing with Ukraine, but I don't think the crash will affect this project".

The radio quoted the managing director of the Iranian HESA aircraft-building company as saying the passengers were to take part in the test flight ceremony of the 140 in Isfahan on Dec. 24. Some reports said the Antonov plane lost contact with the ground close to the Isfahan airport. (Iranian airlines are seeking to refurbish their aging fleet and meet rising passenger volumes despite financial troubles and US sanctions which bar sales of Boeing aircraft to the Islamic Republic. Ukraine sold the production licence for the An-140 to Iran in 2000, the only foreign market its cash-strapped aircraft producers had managed to enter. The An-140 aircraft was designed by the Antonov aircraft design factory outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev and assembled at plants in Ukraine, Russia and Iran. With the first models completed only in 2000, the aircraft is currently being used by Ukrainian airlines and enjoys a reputation of being both quiet and economical. With a range of 1,300 miles, the turboprop was largely intended in the former Soviet Union to replace the aging fleet of An-24 aircraft used on short and medium-range routes. The turbo-prop has a range of 1,300 miles at a cruising speed of up to 575 kph. Priced at $9m each, it is one of the world's cheapest medium-range aircraft. More than 100 Russian and Ukrainian enterprises are reportedly involved in Iran's production of the An-140, with some 80% of parts coming from Russia. The plane was assembled at an aircraft factory linked to Iranian Defence Ministry with help from Ukrainian specialists. The production line has cost Tehran $273m and is to have a capacity to assemble 12 aircraft annually).