Caspian Airlines Flight 7908
EP-CPG, the aircraft involved, photographed in November 2008 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 15 July 2009 |
| Summary | Uncontained engine failure leading to loss of control |
| Site | Jannatabad, Qazvin, Iran 36°8′33″N 49°59′39″E / 36.14250°N 49.99417°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Tupolev Tu-154M |
| Operator | Caspian Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | IV7908 |
| ICAO flight No. | CPN7908 |
| Call sign | CASPIAN 7908 |
| Registration | EP-CPG |
| Flight origin | Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, Tehran, Iran |
| Destination | Zvartnots International Airport, Yerevan, Armenia |
| Occupants | 168 |
| Passengers | 153 |
| Crew | 15 |
| Fatalities | 168 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 was a scheduled commercial flight from Tehran, Iran, to Yerevan, Armenia, that crashed near the village of Jannatabad, outside the city of Qazvin in north-western Iran, on 15 July 2009. All 153 passengers and 15 crew members on board died.
The crash was the fourth deadliest aviation incident in Iran behind Iran Air Flight 655 (1988), the Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash (2003), and Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (2020). It was also the second-deadliest aviation incident in 2009 behind Air France Flight 447.
The subsequent crash investigation found that the incident had been caused by fatigue failure and consequent disintegration of a rotor disc in the left hand engine (engine #1). In addition to the failure of that engine, fragments of the disc severed two of the three hydraulic control systems, and damaged fuel lines for the centre engine (engine #2). Fuel leaking from these damaged lines ignited, causing a large fire which then destroyed components that controlled the elevators and rudder, resulting in the pilots losing control of the aircraft.