Two badly damaged black box recorders have been recovered from a Tupolev aircraft that crashed in Iran yesterday, official media reported today.
The cause of the worst air crash in Iran for six years was still unknown, Iran's state English-language Press TV said.
The aircraft was on its way to neighbouring Armenia's capital Yerevan when it came down after catching fire in mid-air and ploughing into farmland 16 minutes after departing Tehran, killing all 168 people on board.
The Russian-built Caspian Airlines plane exploded on impact and left only scattered bits of incinerated metal and fragments of the bodies of 153 passengers and 15 crew across a wide area around a deep smoking crater in the ground.
Press TV's website quoted an official as saying the two boxes - which could contain vital clues to explaining the crash - were heavily damaged but that experts were trying to retrieve data from them.
The semi-official Fars News Agency said authorities were still searching for a third black box.
Most of those onboard were Iranians, but there were also Armenian and Georgian citizens. Deputy Transport Minister Ahmad Majidi said DNA testing would be needed to identify the remains.
The United States extended condolences on Wednesday to families of the victims. Washington has no diplomatic ties with Tehran but has been trying to reach out to the country as part of an effort to coax it into negotiations over its disputed nuclear programme.
US sanctions bar the sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran and hinder it buying other aircraft or spares from the West, many of which rely on US-built engines and parts.
Air safety experts have said Iran has a poor record, with a string of crashes in the past few decades - many involving Russian-made aircraft. It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002.
It was the deadliest crash since 2003 when an Ilyushin Il-76, also Russian built, crashed into an Iranian mountain.
Tehran-based Caspian Airlines was set up in 1993 and flies an all-Tupolev fleet linking Iranian cities and also routes to the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Armenia.
Reuters