Video Shows Panic as Passenger Jet Cabin Collapses - Newsweek
Terrifying video shows passengers screaming as violent shaking tears ceiling panels from inside a Boeing 737 during an emergency return to an airport in Iran.
The viral footage shows sections of the cabin ceiling falling into the aisle and exposing internal fixtures as passengers brace against their seats. Some can be heard crying out while the aircraft shakes.
The domestic Sepehran Airlines flight was traveling from Mashhad to Kermanshah when the outer layer of a landing-gear tire separated during takeoff, according to Hassan Jafari, public relations director for airports in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province. The pilot then reported an engine emergency and returned to Mashhad, Jafari told Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
“The passengers left the aircraft safely and were sent to Kermanshah on a replacement flight,” Jafari said, according to an English translation of his remarks to IRNA. No injuries were reported, and the airport later reopened its runway.
Newsweek has not verified the video and reached out to Sepehran Airlines via email for comment.
The flight had already experienced two delays because of technical problems earlier in the day, Jafari told IRNA. It eventually departed at about 5:39 p.m. local time.
Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that the passengers ultimately reached their destination after the airline substituted another aircraft. The outlet said the sequence involved four attempts and two aircraft changes.
The precise relationship between the tire damage, the reported engine emergency and the severe vibrations has not been established. Fars reported that Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization must conduct a technical examination and said investigators could not draw a definitive connection between the tire and engine problems based on the initial information.
Airport personnel searched the runway for possible tire debris after the aircraft landed, the outlet said.
The latest emergency came about three weeks after another Sepehran Boeing 737 left the runway at the same airport. According to Fars, a final Civil Aviation Organization report attributed that event to abnormal vibration, known as shimmy, in the main landing gear.
An examination found that a shimmy damper had failed following leakage, wear and corrosion, transferring abnormal forces to other landing-gear components and damaging the tires, Fars reported. No official finding has linked the two incidents.
Iran’s commercial aviation sector has operated for decades under Western restrictions that limit access to new aircraft, replacement components and manufacturer support. As a result, the country relies heavily on older airplanes, while sanctions have constrained the supply of parts needed to maintain them.
Those restrictions were tightened shortly before the Sepehran emergency. On September 8, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 27 Iranian carriers, including Sepehran Airlines, for operating in Iran’s aviation sector. The department alleged that Iran has used ostensibly private airlines to transport weapons and personnel and to obtain American-made aircraft and technology through overseas intermediaries.
The Treasury Department also suspended three aviation-related authorizations and warned foreign companies against providing aircraft transfers, cargo services or sales support to sanctioned Iranian airlines. It said it would still consider requests involving aviation safety individually.
Sepehran operates Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 aircraft, models belonging to the older 737 Classic generation. The airline’s official fleet page says it uses its 737s on domestic and international routes.
Neither Iranian authorities nor Sepehran has established whether sanctions, the aircraft's age, or difficulty obtaining parts contributed to the latest incident. Its cause remains subject to a technical investigation.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Sam Wilson.
