Aircraft Landed Safely, No Injuries

A Boeing 747 operated by Mahan Air in Iran lost parts of its number 3 engine Thursday shortly after departing from Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.

Mashable reports that according to Iranian media, the plane was able to land safely and no one was injured.

The flight had departed Mehrabad airport in Tehran en route to Bandar Abbas in southern Iran with 426 passengers and crew on board. Faramarz Sarvi, deputy head of the private airline Mahan Air, told Iranian state television that the flight was only two minutes old when the pilots made the decision to return to the airport. The airline official said that all regular inspections and checks had been conducted before the airplane was cleared for the flight.

According to the Tasnim news agency, Sarvi said that "a piece of the turbine" separated from the airplane and impacted the fuselage of the airplane before falling to the ground in a Tehran suburb.

Mahan Air operates five Boeing 747s, all of which entered service between 1986 and 1993.

(Image via Twitter user Bahman Kalbasi)

FMI: www.mahan.aero/en