By Rabih Moghrabi
Sharjah - Forty-three people died and three survived with critical injuries when an Iranian aircraft crashed and burst into flames on Tuesday in the emirate of Sharjah, police chief Saleh Ali al-Mutawa told reporters.
An official Iranian statement said there were 39 passengers, including 12 Iranians and 27 of other nationalities, and six crew aboard the Dutch-built Fokker 50 of Kish Airlines which crashed as it was attempting an emergency landing on a flight from the Iranian island of Kish.
Earlier a state television report said a child and another person were the only survivors of the crash.
"This morning a Fokker 50 aircraft of Kish Air left the airport of Kish for Sharjah. Near the airport (of Sharjah) it asked to make an emergency landing, veered to the left and crashed," the Iranian civil aviation authority statement said, quoted by the ISNA news agency.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw about 20 bodies lying on the ground near the wreckage, some wrapped in white blankets and some visibly charred inside transparent plastic bags.
Emergency workers were lifting big pieces of the airplane wreckage.
"There are 43 bodies and three survivors in critical condition, but this number is not final," said Colonel al-Mutawa. "All casualties are from the plane," he added.
Earlier, state television showed several dead bodies in dramatic footage of the burning fuselage. One crumpled body lay several metres from the wreck, another lay broken amid smashed seats.
Only the blue tail section of the white aircraft, registration EP-LCA, bearing the company logo of a stylised red bird against a yellow sun, rose above the wreckage.
Rescue workers wearing surgical masks over their mouths battled through thick black smoke as firemen doused the wreckage with water hoses.
"A passenger plane belonging to Kish Airlines came down between Ajman and Sharjah," the television said.
"The plane was coming in to land," an airport security official at Sharjah international told reporters. - Sapa-AFP