A Boeing 727 aircraft crashed near a north-western city of Iran killing 72 of the 105 passengers and crew on board on Sunday, according to the Fars news agency report.  The information was gathered from the forensic medicine service in the province of West Azerbaijan.

The passenger jet from the state-run airline, Iran Air, was attempting to complete an emergency landing in Orumiyeh when it crashed to the ground and broke into pieces.

The Iran airplane departed from Tehran Mehrabad airport at 6:00 pm local time (1230 GMT) and was expected to arrive at the city of Orumiyeh at 7:45 pm local time (1615 GMT).

However, the plane crashed near a village about 15 km away from the Orumiyeh airport, Mr. Jalzadeh, the West Azerbaijan governor informed the Iran state IRINN TV.

Jalzadeh said ten minutes before the plane was to arrive at the Orumiyeh airport, the pilot told the airport control tower that they could not land due to bad weather conditions.  After that they disappeared from the control tower’s radar.

Officials said that the bad weather was the primary reason why the aircraft crashed. The crew failed to land the plane at first attempt because of heavy snowfall and thick fog. Afterwards, it crash landed about seven kilometers from the city of Orumiyeh, near the southern area of the Orumiyeh Lake.

The crash happened when the aircraft was going down for a landing at 7:45 pm local time on Sunday.

Medical reports said all 12 crew members were killed, as well as a teenager and two new-born babies.

The 31 injured are already out of danger, but two people are still in critical condition, the Mehr news agency reported.