All 11 people aboard a private Turkish jet died Sunday after the jet crashed into a mountainside and burst into flames during heavy rain in southern Iran, authorities said.
Iran Civil Aviation Organization spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh told state television, "We can confirm that a Turkish private jet, while passing through our airspace, disappeared from the radar and crashed near Shahr-e Kord," some 370 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.
Those on board included Turkish heiress Mina Basaran and seven of her friends, all flying back from a party ahead of her planned wedding next month.
The semi-official Fars news agency said the plane took off from the United Arab Emirates on its way to Istanbul.
Sunday's crash comes after an Iranian ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, crashed in southern Iran, killing all 65 people on board in February.
