Iranian Fighter Jet Crashes, Killing 3: State TV

An Iranian fighter jet crashed Monday morning in a residential area of the northwestern city of Tabriz, killing three people, including two crew, state television reported. According to the local Red Crescent organization, the plane smashed into a school and one of the dead was a neighborhood resident. The director of the Crisis Management Authority in the East Azerbaijan Province, Mohammad-Bagher Honarvar, said that an F-5 fighter plane on a training mission crashed at 9 am local time (5:30 am Greenwich Mean Time) in the Monajem neighborhood in the city center. It hit the wall of a school, which was closed at the time due to the coronavirus pandemic. An investigation is underway, the state broadcaster said. The official Islamic Republic News Agency posted on its website video footage showing firefighters putting out a blaze at the crash site. While Iran’s air force fleet comprises mostly Russian MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets from the Soviet era, and some Chinese aircraft, it also includes American F-4 and F-5 fighter jets that predate the 1979 Islamic revolution, as well as Iranian-built HESA Saeqeh fighter jets, which are derived from the American Northrop F-5, with some modifications.