Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3
By: Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Hossein Sarvari, governor of Ramsar city of Iranian Mazandaran province, has announced that a two-seat tourist aircraft went missing around the county on Feb. 2, IRNA news agency reported.
The aircraft belonged to a private aviation company and was carrying a Saudi national named Habib bin Shuaib bin Muhammad Khobait who was on a tourist visit.
Managing director of Mazandaran Crisis Management Center Rostam Zaroudi stated that the aircraft took off in the afternoon heading for Gilan province when due to heavy fog that reduced the range of sight to 800 meters, it lost contact with the air traffic control unit.
Zaroudi said that groups from the Red Crescent Society, Environment Protection, and other organizations are searching the area for the airplane.
Dense wood which covers most of the two provinces makes the search operations difficult, he said.
Meanwhile, the managing director of Gilan Red Crescent Society Alireza Khosousi said that as it is likely that the aircraft fell into the sea, the organization is carrying out search operations in the sea as well.
Speaking on Feb. 3, he further said that the province's Red Crescent center will use helicopters to search the area if nothing is found by the next day.