| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| IRGC ground forces commander killed in plane crash |
| 2006-01-09 |
| A small military jet crashed in northwestern Iran on Monday, killing the commander of the ground forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and at least 12 other people, state media said. The plane, which belongs to the Revolutionary Guards, was attempting an emergency landing at Oroumieh, located 560 miles northwest of the capital, Tehran, near the Turkish border, state television reported. Gen. Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards, was among the 11 military officers killed in the crash, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported, quoting Guards spokesman Gen. Masoud Jazayeri. State television said 11 passengers and two crew members were killed. However, state radio said the plane had a crew of three. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. State television said the plane was a Falcon jet, which is the preferred aircraft of high-ranking military officers in Iran. Iran has a history of aircraft accidents involving a heavy loss of life. The government has blamed the U.S. trade embargo which makes it impossible for Iran to buy parts for its old U.S.-built aircraft. In December, 115 people were killed when a military transport plane crashed into a 10-story apartment building near Tehran's Mehrabad airport as the pilot was returning to the airport shortly after takeoff to make an emergency landing. In 2003, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people. That crash led to an intel coup on the al-Qaeda leadership in Iran. Be interesting to see if we learn anything notable from Kazemi's sorry carcass. In 2002, a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 struck snow-covered mountains in western Iran, killing all 119 people on board. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #41 OK, cut this guy's caffine ration. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2006-01-09 23:37 |
| #40 Lots of news today - REGIMECHANGE IRAN reports it believes Iran may have up to four nukes bombs already. Meanwhile our alleged good friends the Russians on PRAVDA are wondering whom killed off Kazemi and other incidents - read, Dubya and the USA. TERRADAILY.com reports that Chinese growth, espec in population and consumption, may eventually threaten the entire planet, which seemingly is in line with PRAVDA's "THE EARTH IS DEAD" artic which again is in line with Steven C Hoagland's belief on COASTTOCOASTAM show that Iran already has nukes, and that alleged "Global Gulag-ists", Socialists, Globalists, Governmentists and Poligarchs intend to PC "eliminate" approximately 5 1/2 BILLION persons, as many as necesary, for the sake of resources-control and Globalist/Global Utopia. Hoagland's "Global Gulag-ists" > America vv the WOT and 9-11 are fighting a PRE-SET, PRE-DETERMINED, PC/PDENIABLE alleged "MANUFACTURED WAR" for control of the world, or words to that effect. Both Hoagland and O'REILLY [vv ACLU and its agenda] believe that AMERICA'S SOVEREIGNTY AND ITS DESTRUCTION IS THE IMMEDIATE PRIORITY/OBJECTIVE OF BOTH [HOAGLAND'S] ALLEGED GLOBAL GULAGISTS AND [O'REILLY'S SUPER-LEFTY] "ACLU". STAY ARMED AND STAY VIGILANT, RANTERS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-01-09 22:52 |
| #39 IM = Insh'allah Maintenance, lol. I heard some excellent stories at the Dhahran AB in '92, lol. Terrified Saudi pilots were always a favorite topic, heh. I bought a truck which happened to have a gate pass, leaving it on was part of the deal, so I could go to the E & O Clubs, eat real food - even during prayer-time (gasp!) and hang out with regular people. Alas, I didn't have access in my later tour - and I think the US Mil had been wholly replaced by contractors, anyway. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-01-09 22:36 |
| #38 5. Some mad Mulla doing the QC on maitenance. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-01-09 22:28 |
| #37 ...and one more AP, 4. and 1/2 second ago |
| Posted by: Rafael 2006-01-09 22:12 |
| #36 Holy Extrapolation, Batman! Let's not get too excited. After all, it could have just been lack of airspeed, altitude, and ideas, all at the same time. There is nothing more worthless than: 1. Altitude above you. 2. Runway behind you. 3. Fuel in the fuel truck. Or it could be the fuel and altimeter aftermarket parts, like Seafarious sez. LOL, Sea! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-01-09 21:20 |
| #35 Good lord, a civil war in the makings?? As unfortunate as it would be a civil was would set them back years in their quest for nukes and give us time on the Iraq rebuild. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-01-09 19:39 |
| #34 My personal prayer in all of this is that what we are seeing now is an Iranian variation of the Night of the Long Knives : one of the power factions has cut a deal with the regular Army and Police to eliminate the IRGC leadership, in return for their support when their nut Prez crosses their Rubicon. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-01-09 18:18 |
| #33 that was good SF!! |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-01-09 17:49 |
| #32 They must be getting their fuel gauges and altimeters from Fred's sympathy meter supplier... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-01-09 17:47 |
| #31 Jet turbines are touchy items, and require regular attention from well-trained individuals. Also, political commissars do NOT make the best inspectors on highly-involved mechanical work. Sabotage with a "modified" part would not be that difficult under such circumstances. Not excluding the fact that an "Inshallah" approach to basic maintenance can be deadly on aircraft. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-01-09 17:36 |
| #30 I'd rather they think a dissident faction did a hit. Start the purges! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-01-09 16:43 |
| #29 I was kind of hoping Iran was right and the embargo had something to do with it, chalk one up for ol Condi and the State team. But the reality sets in, if France can get Nuclear equipment and materieal in well aircraft parts would be a no brainer. Unfortunately Poor maintenance and stupid pilots are more likely at fault here. "Fuel check? Allah be with us! We don't need no stinkin fuel check". |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-01-09 15:26 |
| #28 Lot's of recent "one-point" landings of late. US SF is all over this one, busy preparing the battle field. Good work! |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-01-09 14:49 |
| #27 interesting thread from Free Republic (old) I discovered when googling Pasdaran Corp. Wish I had time to read it all. link |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-01-09 14:34 |
| #26 As an aside.... I don't know if the more embarassing aviation accident cause is "fuel exhaustion" or "controlled flight into terrain." Both are pretty stupid. |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2006-01-09 14:16 |
| #25 No big BOOM, no flames. From the photo, wreckage appeared to be pretty much in tact! Could have simply ran outta motion lotion. Pays to tap on the gauge now and then, just in case. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-09 13:36 |
| #24 Well, it could have been the Mossad, too. |
| Posted by: Matt 2006-01-09 13:25 |
| #23 Is it too late to start the rumor that the CIA did it? It would be easy for the MM's™ to believe it, whether we had a hand in it or not. So if the Iranian secret intel service is googling this right now, THE CIA DID IT! |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-01-09 13:23 |
| #22 Well, RG commanders are appointed directly by Khamenei... so if this is a hit, it's Ahmadinejad's doing (I guess.) Hmmmmmmmmm... |
| Posted by: Chinter Flarong9283 2006-01-09 13:10 |
| #21 What chance of Irans most competent mechanics being drafted to the nuke scheme, eg to run centrifuges. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2006-01-09 13:01 |
| #20 According this, Kazemihad been head of the IRGC Air Force until last August. Then there's this, Another Guards commander...[replaced] in the reshuffle is Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the IRGC Air Force. Kazemi replaced Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf when the latter was appointed as the police chief in 2000, but Khamenei is said to want a more robust commander to lead the IRGC Air Force to achieve faster progress in the ballistic missile development under his command. That last part doesn't exactly square with another take: The Islamic regime is increasing its preparation for its last stand against the Iranian Nation and the world community. Several commanders of the regime's Pasdaran Corp. (Revolutionary Guards) have been changed on the Supreme Leader's instruction. Generals Mohammad-Ali Jaffari and Ahmad Kazemi have been nominated, today, to two key posts which will allow a better control of the Pasdaran Corp. by the clerical leadership. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2006-01-09 12:56 |
| #19 When NTSB starts including "god's will" as a possible crash cause, we'll know it's too late... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-01-09 12:26 |
| #18 One possible contribution to the aircraft safety problem in Iran is the replacement of competant people by ideologically pure people. It doesn't seem like this could actually trickle down to the mechanic level but it could easily trickle down to the ispection level. |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-01-09 12:21 |
| #17 The Pat Robertsonian effect was it Fred? A lot of that going around lately. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-09 11:18 |
| #16 Personally, I think God struck them dead because they didn't have enough shariah in their diet. |
| Posted by: Fred 2006-01-09 11:15 |
| #15 War planning, we don't do war planning. The dhimmocrats would never allow it. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-01-09 10:57 |
| #14 When you have a country run by Mad Mullahs, what do you expect? THEY are in charge of the laws of physics through Allan. Take a look at the Bam earthquake disaster. Anyone that flies or maintains these aircraft are ultimately answerable to the MMs, so heroic maintenance and procurement is going against the will of the MMs, who have other priorities with the public purse. I am sure that this systemic weakness is being taken into consideration in our war planning. It damned well better be. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-01-09 10:25 |
| #13 #12 is an interesting comment, JFM. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-01-09 10:23 |
| #12 BTW Dassault is mostly in the hands of the Dassault family and they have Jewish roots (Its creator Marcel Dassault formerly Marcel Bloch converted to catholicism during or after WWII, don't remember) |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-01-09 10:19 |
| #11 Soooo...... Enquiring minds want to knnow....who is responsible? The possibilities are endless! Let's hope that what this wasn't, was an IRGC coup planned against Ahammadaboutjihad, that crashed and burned. AhNeedMeds is mad-hatter crazy and I can see that being a perfectly valid potential scenario. But who knows? |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-01-09 09:48 |
| #10 And a fine one it is, JFM. Perhaps Ahmadisnutz needs a ride somewhere soon? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-01-09 09:37 |
| #9 The Falcon is France's contribution to the WOT. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-01-09 09:17 |
| #8 Dassault makes them. Yes, it's French. Google is your friend. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2006-01-09 08:36 |
| #7 I'm presuming this is a French plane. Can anybody confirm? |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-01-09 08:24 |
| #6 "...blamed the U.S. trade embargo which makes it impossible for Iran to buy parts for its old U.S.-built aircraft." "...Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying ... crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran." "...Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 struck snow-covered mountains in western Iran, killing all 119 people on board." I didn't know the embargo worked against Russian aircraft parts too. I guess Iran didn't have an 'oil-for-food' loophole in their embargo. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-01-09 08:14 |
| #5 The Zionist Death Ray strikes again! Kudos to the Mossad for another success ('cause it couldn't possibly be American Special Forces fiddling with the fiddly bits at night in the hangers, or shining laser pointers into the pilots' eyes). ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-09 08:00 |
| #4 Rearangements at the top? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-01-09 07:42 |
| #3 You mean you guys don't realize that 'pilot error' is the FAA's all purpose cover line ? Iran is not the FAA. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-01-09 07:38 |
| #2 Any US made transport aircraft that Iran is flying are so old and popular that parts are avilable on the open market. Poor maintance and pilot error are to blame not any embargo. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-01-09 06:57 |
| #1 Interesting how "pilot error" is never mentioned as a potential cause. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-09 06:39 |