Ukrainian passenger plane crashes near Tehran carrying 180 people

TEHRAN: A Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 180 passengers and crew crashed as it descended near Imam Khomeini International Airport  near Tehran.

According to the Iranian media reports, the aircraft said to be Boeing 737 seemed to have developed technical problems and dropped in Tehran minutes after the take-off.

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The report came after the allegation of another Lockerbie incident by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after he made a veiled reference to the 1988 bombing that killed 270 civilians.

Rouhani tweeted that America should ‘never threaten Iran’ after warning that the US should ‘ remember number 290 ‘ when the U.S. Navy accidentally shot down a Persian Gulf passenger jet the Persian Gulf in July 1988, killing 290 passengers.

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Earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted, “Those who refer to the number 52 should also remember the number 290. Never threaten the Iranian nation.”#IR655

Those who refer to the number 52 should also remember the number 290. #IR655
Never threaten the Iranian nation.

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 6, 2020

Many analysts in the Middle East saw this as a veiled reference to the Lockerbie terrorist attack, which in December 1988 saw a bomb destroying Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland killing 270-months after the Iranian flight 655 had been downed.