A bride and her entire hens party has been killed after her private plane crash landed on return from a bachelorette party in Dubai.
Bride-to-be Mina Basaran, 28, was celebrating her impending marriage to Murat Gezer when her plane burst into flames and crashed in the south of Iran on Sunday.
All 11 passengers and crew members on board the flight from Sharjah to Istanbul were killed, authorities confirmed on Monday.
Just one day before her tragic death, Miss Basaran posted a photo alongside her bridesmaids celebrating the ill-fated hens trip
A spokesman for Iran’s emergency management organisation, Mojtaba Khaledi, said local villagers discovered the wreckage.
‘[They] found only badly burned bodies and no survivors,’ he said.
Mr Khaledi said they would require DNA tests to formerly identify those on board.
Just one day before her tragic death, Miss Basaran posted a photo alongside her bridesmaids celebrating the ill-fated hens trip.
Holding a bouquet of flowers, Miss Basaran posed in front of the private plane wearing a denim jacket embroidered with the words ‘Mrs Bride’ and ‘better together’
The young businesswoman was also pictured inside the plane, carrying a string of love-heart shaped balloons
Miss Basaran was pictured in a white dressing gown, while her seven bridesmaids were in pink.
Two days earlier, Miss Basaran shared a photo of herself in front of the private plane, which is believed to be owned by her wealthy father, Huseyin Basaran.
Holding a bouquet of flowers, Miss Basaran wore a denim jacket embroidered with the words ‘Mrs Bride’ and ‘better together’.
The young businesswoman was also pictured inside the plane, carrying a string of love-heart shaped balloons.
Miss Basaran had spent the past few days celebrating in the United Arab Emirates with seven of her closest friends.
Miss Basaran had spent the past few days celebrating in the United Arab Emirates with seven of her closest friends
There were seven passengers and three crew members on the private plane (pictured), which is believed to be owned by her wealthy father, Huseyin Basaran
The trip was a traditional ‘farewell’ to her friends before her marriage. She became engaged to her fiance in October.
Miss Basaran was due to marry her fiance Murat Gezer on April 14.
The 28-year-old was also in line to take over her father’s business, Basaran Investment Holding.
The Istanbul-based Basaran is active in the energy, construction and tourism sectors. It also owns hotels.
Miss Basaran had become a board member of her father’s company already in 2013, Turkish reports said.
Miss Basaran had become a board member of her father’s company already in 2013, Turkish reports said
Iranian media said the plane went down in remote mountains in the snow-capped Zagros range during bad weather.
The plane had left from the emirate of Sharjah and crashed near the city of Shahr-e Kord, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of Tehran, Iranian state television reported.
Sharjah Civil Aviation Department said in a statement that the plane ‘did not apply for maintenance procedures while on the ground at the airport.’
The plane took off at 17:16 local time (13:16 GMT) and disappeared from the radar screen at 15:30 GMT, said the statement carried by the state WAM news agency.
The eight passengers on board were six Turks and two Spaniards. It did not give the nationality of the three crew members.
Reza Jafarzadeh, head of the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation, confirmed the plane had eight passengers and three crew members on board.
Miss Basaran was due to marry her fiance Murat Gezer on April 14 (pictured together)
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Hurriyet said the plane had two female pilots and a crew member, meaning all those on board are women.
One formerly flew Turkish army fighter jets as one of Turkey’s first female pilots, it said. The other had worked in the past for flag carrier Turkish Airlines.
Tasnim news agency quoted an ICAO official as saying: ‘The plane is on fire. After the pilot asked to lower altitude, it disappeared from the radar.’
Iranian media reported that rescuers had been dispatched by land to the crash site, which is located in a relatively isolated area of Helen’s Mountain – a protected area in the Zagros range.
Some reports said the plane went down during heavy rain.
The head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Morteza Salimi, told state television that two helicopters would fly to the area on Monday morning ‘to search for the plane’s debris and bodies’ — indicating there could be no survivors.
Mr Khaledi said they would require DNA tests to formerly identify those on board, including bride-to-be Mina Basaran (pictured)
The Zagros range was the scene of another aviation tragedy in February, when an ATR-72 twin engine passenger plane of Iran’s Aseman Airlines crashed there killing all 66 people on board.
The plane had disappeared from radar after taking off from Tehran on a domestic flight as a snowstorm battered the mountains.
Rescue teams had to battle bad weather for days before they were able to recover the black boxes of that aircraft and had to interrupt their operation several times because of bad weather.
They are still working on bringing the remains of those killed down the valley from the crash site which lies at a height of about 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).
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