Dubai: All 302 members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on board a military aircraft were killed in the country's worst ever aviation disaster when it crashed in the mountains bordering Pakistan.

The Russian-made airliner was on a domestic flight to Kerman from the South Eastern Zahedan in Sistan Baluchestan province near Pakistan border, when it crashed about 30 kms from its destination at 20:24 IST on February 19, the state-run media said.

The aircraft was preparing to land at the Kerman airport, 800 kms South East of Tehran, when the pilot had radioed about bad weather and strong winds before losing contact with air traffic controllers, Tehran television said.

Search teams, including Army helicopters, early on February 20 found parts of the debris, including the plane's wing near a tunnel which cut through local mountains.

"All those aboard were the personnel of Division 41 of Sarallah of the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps," Kerman Governor, Mohammad Ali Karimi, told Iranian news agency IRNA.

Those who perished – 18 crew and 284 passengers – were members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite group under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The guards protect the ultra-conservative country's borders and defend ruling hard-liners.

"In his last radio contact, the pilot said 'I am trying to approach the airport; maybe the weather condition will get better'. At that moment, the contact was lost," Karimi said.

Police and relief forces in Kerman had been put on alert and rescue and search teams had been dispatched to the crash site, he said.

The elite forces, most of them senior officers, had gone to the impoverished Sistan- Baluchestan province, of which Zahedan is the capital, for an "important mission", Tehran television quoted an anonymous official as saying.

The government, in a statement, offered condolences to the families of the victims, media reports said.

Transportation Minister Ahmad Khorram recently had acknowledged that Iran's air industry was suffering from US sanctions on purchase of American-made planes and warned of air disasters if the trade ban was not lifted.

PTI