The wreck of an aircraft carrying Iranian Transport Minister Mr Rahman Dadman and 28 others, including deputy ministers and parliamentary deputies, was found on this evening.
The aircraft vanished earlier today in a mountainous area during an early morning flight to the town of Gorgan, close to the border with Turkmenistan.
Mr Dadman and his team had been on their way to Gorgan to inaugurate a new airport, it was reported.
After taking off from Tehran at 2 a.m. (GMT), the pilot contacted air traffic controllers an hour later reporting bad weather and said he might return to Tehran or make an emergency landing in Sari.