A committee of investigators is examining the black-box flight-data recorder recovered from the wreckage of a Boeing 727 which crashed just outside the Iranian city of Orumiyeh. At least 77 people died in the crash and reports are still not clear as to whether there were 104 people on board or 105 when the plane came down.

According to Hamid Behbahani, 27 people were injured, some of them seriously. It is thought that two of the dead are children. Although investigations into what caused the pilots to make the decision not to land at the airport are ongoing, there are reports that a technical failure had been discovered.

The IranAir jet was coming from Tehran. According to one of the survivors, Hossein Haqiqi, the pilot announced that he would be attempting an emergency landing before the aircraft hit the ground and the cabin was plunged into darkness. He added that the experience was like being in a film.

Nasrin Fatahzadeh, a fellow passenger said that rescue workers were forced to cut their way through seats in order to get her out. According to the head of a crisis panel, Ahmad Majidi, it appears that the Boeing’s captain had decided not to risk landing at Orumiyeh airport because of poor weather conditions. However, it is less easy to work out why the plane crashed five miles away, he added.

There are reports that the downed aircraft was the oldest passenger plane in Iran having been delivered to the flag-carrier in 1974.