Two badly damaged black box recorders have been recovered from a Tupolev aircraft that crashed in Iran on Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board, official media reported on Thursday.
The cause of the worst air disaster in Iran for six years was still unknown, state television said.
Deputy Transport Minister Ahmad Majidi, who is leading the probe into the incident, said it was "likely due to technical problems" as the pilot was experienced, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.
The aircraft was on its way to neighboring Armenia's capital Yerevan when it came down after catching fire in mid-air and plowing into farmland 16 minutes after departing Tehran.
The Russian-built Caspian Airlines plane exploded on impact and left only scattered bits of incinerated metal and fragments of the bodies of 153 passengers and 15 crew across a wide area around a deep smoking crater in the ground.
"Because of the severity of the crash, the two black box recorders found are badly damaged, even though they are made of steel," Majidi told Mehr.
"The tapes were out on the ground. We might send the black box to the country where it was manufactured Russia to chase the issue with their help," he said.
Majidi said DNA testing would be needed to identify the remains. Most of those onboard were Iranians, but there were also Armenian and Georgian citizens. Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were among the dead.
About 40 relatives and friends of the victims planned to fly from Yerevan to Tehran on Thursday, Caspian Airline official Arlen Davudyan told Reuters at Yerevan Airport. Most of them were dressed in black.
"I lost by best friend. He was almost a brother...I'm flying to Tehran to pay my condolences to his wife and kids," said Mehdi Sohrabi, a 27-year-old Iranian who studies in Armenia.
Fina Karapetian, an Armenian in her 30s, said her sister and two nephews, 11 and 6, were on board the Tu-154 plane.
"Her husband cried on telephone, 'How will I live without them.' He has no more family," she said. "My mother and father have almost gone out of their minds."
OLD FOE OFFERS CONDOLENCES
The United States, the Islamic Republic's arch foe, extended condolences on Wednesday to families of the victims.
Washington has no diplomatic ties with Tehran but has been trying to engage the country as part of an effort to coax it into negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.
"The United States extends it condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in today's crash of a Caspian Airlines plane," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
U.S. sanctions bar the sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran and hinder it buying other aircraft or spares from the West, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines and parts.
Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari in Tehran, Hasmik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan and Washington bureau; Editing by Angus MacSwan
A South Korean woman struggles with her umbrella in Seoul. AFP/Jung Yeon-Je
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