WHEN WILL
THE MYSTERY BEHIND THE AIRPLANE CRASHES BE UNVEILED?
According
to the initial establishments, there have been 38 casualties,
including senior officers, in the crash of the Antonov 74
type military aircraft at Tehran airport, which belongs to
the Iranian revolutionary Guards Corps and the destination
of which was Shiraz, the south of Tehran. The State
television announced that the aircraft crashed shortly after
it had taken off and 35 Revolutionary Guards Corps members
and 3 crews were killed. While the authorities stated that
the reason of the crash during the takeoff was engine
failure, the Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps,
Major General Yahya Rahim Safawi said following the event,
“the aircraft caught on fire after it fell, overall 36
people lost their lives and other 2 were wounded”. Not
explaining who the casualties were and whether there were
any high-ranking officers among them, Safawi said there were
keeping on the investigation. Meanwhile, the State
television announced that the 2 wounded people also lost
their lives.
This
accident led the revival of the prevailing belief in the
Iranian public opinion that “the regime is responsible for
the crash” because the recent aircraft crashes occurred in
our country are full of question marks... As known, as a
result of the fall on December 6, 2005 of an Iranian C-130
type passenger and cargo airplane, 116 people lost their
lives. While the echoes of the fact that Basij Forces who do
not want the event to be clarified “the flight recorder of
the plane was confiscated”, the suspected crash on January
9, 2006 of the military cargo plane that belongs to the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) near Uremiyah
increased the number of the questions to be answered. The
speculations regarding the crash during which 8 senior IRGC
officers, including the commander of the Land Forces of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ahmad KAZEEMI, as well
as Colonel Seyid MEHTEDI; Colonel Seyid SULEIMANI and
Colonel Hamid AZIMPOUR were killed, are worrisome.
During that
period, the claims that “the urgent landing request of the
pilot was turned down, therefore passing by the airport
twice, the plane crashed down the city center at the third
try, and the only reason why the plane was not allowed to
land was that President, accompanied by the senior
authorities, was at the airport then for a domestic journey”
were discussed for a long time, and also the information
leaked by some officials of the Transportation Minister to
their close circles that “the talks between the tower and
the crew are hid from the Investigation Commission due to an
“order from senior authorities” confirms the public suspects.
Although a proposal regarding the reason for the fall of the
plane about the Transportation Minister in the Majles,
neither the post-accident investigation has given any result,
nor have the senior officials of the Transportation Ministry
made a convincing statement to the press.
On the
other hand, although there is an application under the law
passed in 2004 that “maximum three people having senior
positions in the same institution are allowed to travel by
the same vehicles”, it is attention drawing that the said
law was violated in the plane crashes both in Tehran and
Urumeyah. Some of the commanders, primarily Ahmad KAZEEMI,
killed in the 9 January-crash, who are known to have
occasionally expressed the issue that “the laws brought into
force by the President will drag the country into disaster”.
Considering that KAZEEMI was approached with suspect due to
his connection with the former IRGC commander and the Mayor
of Urumeyah, Mehdi BAKERI, the then claims put forward have
become more meaningful.
Everybody
who knows that following the assassination of Mehdi BAKERI,
who was the commander of a unit comprising of the soldiers
of Azeri origin during the Iranian-Iraqi war, in the plot
organized by the government because of his opinions of
“Turkish nationalism”, KAZEEMI, being closely connected with
BAKERI, was also accused at that time, but was proved not to
be guilty as a result of the investigation carried out
assesses it as a high probability that the plane crash taken
place in Urumeyah is a conspiracy in the guise of an
accident as result of the intensified strife after the
presidential elections. The fact that the Iranian Supreme
Leader, Khamanei, with a hastily issued decree, appointed
Brigadier General Mohammed Reza, who has similar views with
the administration, as the Commander of Land Forces of the
IRGC, and Brigadier General Hussein Salami as the Commander
of Air Forces of the IRGC constitutes a good example for how
the cadres are liquidated.
There have
been overall 30 aircraft crashes in the period since the
“Black Revolution”. Only two of them are passenger aircraft;
the other 28 are the aircraft carrying military or the
civilian high-ranking authorities, and the reason of their
falls has always been hid from the public. We wait in wonder
to see when the mystery behind the plane crashes will be
unveiled and whether any prosecution about those responsible
especially for the last two events will be carried out.
Perviz
Rahimi
pervizrahimi@yahoo.com
