March 25, 2022
the fireman wearing the yellow safety helmet.
An Iranian F-5 fighter jet on a training flight has crashed into an empty school in Tabriz, killing both men on board the plane and one person on the ground.
The F-5 is a single-seater jet, but a two-seater version was also made for use as a trainer and it was one of the two-seaters that crashed February 21.
News reports said the driver of a passing vehicle also lost his life when the plane crashed.
Stories from the scene differed, with some reports saying the plane crashed into a sports stadium after nicking an empty school building and others saying it crashed into an empty playing field at the school and still others saying it hit “a wall.”
Video taken at the scene after the crash showed firefighters battling flames in a three-story building with the remains of the plane sticking out of the side.
Mohammad-Baqer Honarbar, head of the East Azerbaijan crisis management organization, said the plane came down about 9 a.m. in the Yekehdokan neighborhood of the city.
Brig. Gen. Reza Yousefi, commander of the Shahid Fakuri Air Base near Tabriz, said the two men on board “sacrificed themselves.” He said they decided not to eject but guided the plane to try to avoid civilian casualties.
They brought the plane down on a playing field, he said, but the plane kept sliding at high speed and skidded into the empty school building.
The F-5 is an American-designed basic fighter jet. Northrop Corp. built a total of 2,246 F-5s from 1959 to1987 and 308 of them were sold to Iran. As Iran bought newer versions, it sold off some of its older models. As of December, Iran was believed to be still operating 49 F-5s.
