The state media has reported that a passenger aircraft has crashed in the NorthWest Iran today and all the 168 passengers on board are feared to be dead.

The plane was said to be headed from Tehran to the Armenian capital Yerevan with 153 passengers on board and 15 crew members.

The Qazvin emergency services director Hossein Bahzadpour told the IRNA news agency that the plane was completely destroyed and shattered to pieces, and the wreckage was in flames. "It is highly likely that all the passengers on the flight were killed." Bahzadpour said. Caspian Airlines is a Russian-Iranian joint venture founded in 1993.

Footage from state-run Press TV showed a deep trench smashed into an agricultural field by the impact, littered with smoking wreckage. It also showed a large chunk of a wing, where much of the wreckage appeared to be in small pieces.

It is to be noted that Iran has faced a number of air crashes in the past decade. 29 people were killed in the crash that occurred during September 2006 and 30 peoples were killed in the November 2006 air crash which also included the 30 member elite Revolutionary Guards force.