DHAKA: An Iranian police airplane flying to the country’s southeast has crashed, killing all seven people aboard, including a top police officer.

The propeller Turbo Commander airplane crashed late on Saturday in the mountains outside of the provincial capital of Zahedan and searchers later found the wreckage, thehindu.com reports.

The flight carried four passengers and three crew members. 

Among those killed was Gen Mahmoud Sadeqi, a senior police officer in charge of investigations.

Iran’s media says the plane took off from Tehran to head to southeastern Iran to investigate an incident involving an attack on police there, without elaborating.

Authorities offered no immediate explanation for the crash, though Iranian airlines, including those run by the state, are chronically strapped for cash, rely on aging planes and have a spotty maintenance record.

While some operate Boeing and Airbus models, spare parts for Western-made planes are often hard to come by largely because of sanctions aimed at Iran’s nuclear program. Some sanctions have eased in recent months, however, due to an interim nuclear deal with world powers.

Those difficulties have left Iranian airlines increasingly reliant on planes developed by the Soviet Union and its successor states, though parts for aging Soviet-era planes can also be tough to get. That’s caused the country to be hit by a series of deadly crashes.

In August, a commercially flown IrAn-140, a twin-engine turboprop plane built with Ukranian technology off an old Soviet-era design, crashed after takeoff from Tehran, killing 39 people.

BDST: 1045 HRS, OCT 12, 2014