Iran’s state TV is reporting that five people were killed after a rescue helicopter crashed in the country’s western province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.
The ambulance helicopter struck a power line and crashed.
All five occupants died in the crash.
The helicopter was destroyed by fire.
The TV says the helicopter was trying to airlift a pregnant woman but did not make it to her location on Monday.
Ali Fath Nasirian , Governor of the Kiar city near where the incident took place, also confirmed the death toll, saying that all people aboard the craft have reportedly lost their lives.
Three crew members and two paramedics were killed in the crash. Their bodies have been taken out of the debris and transferred out of the place.
Pirhossein Koulivand, head of the country’s emergency medical services, told the TV three of the five aboard were flight crew and two were rescue workers
The incident came amid growing concern about the safety of Iran’s aging aircraft fleet as the result of decades of U.S. trade and financial sanctions.
Iran has suffered a string of plane and helicopter crashes over the past few decades. Tehran says U.S. sanctions have long prevented it from buying new aircraft or spare parts from the West to modernize its fleet.
In 2016, a helicopter belonged to the oil company crashed in the Caspian Sea, killing five onboard. In 2015, four died in a crash of a helicopter transferring an injured oil staffer to hospital from an offshore oil platform.
