TEHRAN: An Iranian fighter jet crashed into a school stadium in a residential area of the northwest Iranian city of Tabriz, killing two pilots and at least one civilian, state media report.
State news agency IRNA reported early on February 21 that the plane was an F-5 fighter jet and that the cause of the incident was under investigation.
The head of the local Red Crescent said the jet smashed into a school stadium and that one of the dead was a neighborhood resident.
A local official told state television that the aircraft went down around 9 a.m. in the central Tabriz neighborhood of Monajem.
He said the school was closed at the time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S.-built F-5 fighter was purchased by Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Decades of Western sanctions against Tehran have made it difficult to get spare parts for the jets and to maintain the fleet.
The country’s air force also flies Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi planes.
