TEHRAN, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Up to 50 people survived a plane crash in northwestern Iran Sunday, but dozens more are feared dead, officials said.
The IranAir Boeing 727, with 105 people aboard, went down soon before it was to land in Orumiyeh, 460 miles northwest of Tehran, a civil aviation spokesman told state TV, Sky News reported.
Mahmoud Mozafar, head of Iran's Red Crescent, said "the plane was smashed into pieces but did not explode."
Snow was slowing the rescue operation.
The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted the head of the State Emergency Center, Gholam Reza Masoumi, saying 50 people survived with light injuries.
"There were 105 people on board; 94 of them were passengers, including two children," Shahrokh Nioushabadi, a spokesman for Iran Air, told the Mehr news agency.
The plane had taken off from Mehrabad Airport in Tehran after a one-hour delay.
