Iranian fighter jet crashes near school in Tabriz, killing three people

An Iranian military fighter jet crashed Monday in a residential area of the northwestern city of Tabriz, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported.

Three people were reportedly killed in the incident — two pilots and a civilian.

According to the report, an F-5 fighter jet crashed near a sports complex operated by a nearby school, which was closed at the time.

Video footage of the scene of the crash shared on Twitter showed a large blaze burning as firefighters try to contain it.

The head of the local Red Crescent said the jet smashed into a school, and that one of the dead was a resident of the neighborhood.

Authorities are investigating the incident, the report said.

#BREAKING
An Iranian fighter jet has crashed to a sport complex in #Tabriz, eastern Azerbaijan province of #Iran pic.twitter.com/t0nSOj2A61

— Aleph א (@no_itsmyturn) February 21, 2022

Iran’s air force has an assortment of US-made military aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also has Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi planes. Decades of Western sanctions have made it hard to maintain the aging fleet.

Previous avian accidents in Iran include Tehran-based Caspian Airlines Flight 6936 that in January 2020 crashed in the middle of a highway in the city of Mahshahr. Two passengers were injured in the incident.

Less than three weeks earlier, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 that was making its way from Tehran to Kyiv was shot down by the Iranian military in Robat Karim County in northern Iran, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.

In February 2018, a domestic flight operated by Iran Aseman Airlines crashed near the city of Semirom. All 60 passengers and 6 crew members on board were killed.