Iran Air

Iran Air, branded as The Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: هواپیمايی جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎‎ Havāpeymāyi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is the flag carrier airline of Iran and the oldest airline in the Middle East, operating services to 58 destinations. The airline's cargo fleet, operated by subsidiary Iran Air Cargo, operates services to 20 scheduled and 5 charter destinations. Its main bases are the Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport for international flights and Tehran Mehrabad Airport for domestic flights . It is headquartered on the grounds of Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.

Iran Air is also referred to by its Persian acronym, Homa (Persian: هما‎‎), which is derived from two sources: the initial letters of Iran Air's pre-Revolutionary Persian name, Havāpeymāyi-ye Melli-ye Irān (Persian: هواپیمایی ملی ایران‎‎); and from Homa, a griffin of Persian mythology.

History

Formation

In 1944, a group of businessmen founded Iran's first flag carrier under the name of Iranian Airways. Operations covered domestic and regional passenger and freight services plus a weekly freight service to Europe. The fleet consisted of Douglas DC-3s initially, supplemented by Douglas DC-4 and Vickers Viscount aircraft, later on. In 1954, the privately owned airline Persian Air Services (PAS) was established, which initially operated only freight services, followed by passenger operations between Tehran and other major cities in Iran. In 1960, PAS initiated service to several European destinations, including Geneva, Paris, Brussels and London, using Douglas DC-7C aircraft, leased from Sabena.

Iran Air Flight 277

Iran Air Flight 277 was a passenger flight which crashed near Urmia Airport, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, on January 9, 2011. 77 of the 105 aboard died. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 727-286Adv, was operating Iran Air's scheduled domestic service from Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran, to Urmia. It crashed after a go-around was initiated during final approach, in poor weather conditions.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 727, registration EP-IRP, built in 1974. The aircraft had spent a long time out of service. It was impounded at Baghdad, Iraq from 1984 to 1990, and then placed in storage from 1991 to 2002. It was then overhauled and returned to service.

Accident

The flight was travelling between Tehran and Urmia and crashed on final approach near Urmia Airport. The accident occurred at around 19:45 local time (16:15 UTC), and was reportedly caused by poor weather. The aircraft had missed its first attempt at landing; it either crashed during a go-around, or while attempting to return to Tehran. The weather conditions at the time of the accident included snow and low visibility. Upon impact, the aircraft broke into multiple pieces, though without fire or explosions. There were differing initial reports as to the type of aircraft that crashed, with either a Fokker 100 or a Boeing 727 claimed to have crashed, although the aircraft was later confirmed to be a Boeing 727.

Iran Air Flight 655

Iran Air Flight 655 is an Iran Air civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai. On 3 July 1988, the aircraft operating on this route was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes under the command of William C. Rogers III. The incident took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. The aircraft, an Airbus A300 B2-203, was destroyed by SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired from Vincennes. All 290 on board died. The cruiser Vincennes had entered Iranian territorial waters after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.

According to the United States government, the crew incorrectly identified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14A Tomcat fighter, a plane made in the United States and operated at that time by only two forces worldwide, the United States Navy and the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. While the Iranian F-14s had been supplied by manufacturer Grumman in an air-to-air configuration only in the 1970s, the crew of Vincennes had been briefed when entering the region that the Iranian F-14s carried unguided bombs as well as Maverick missiles and unguided rockets. The Vincennes crew made ten attempts to contact the crew of the flight on military and civilian radio frequencies, but received no response. The International Civil Aviation Organization said that the flight crew should have been monitoring the civilian frequency.

Iran

Iran (/aɪˈræn/ or ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːn/;Persian: Irān – ایران‎‎ [ʔiːˈɾɒːn]), also known as Persia (/ˈpɜːrʒə/ or /ˈpɜːrʃə/), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (جمهوری اسلامی ایران – Jomhuri ye Eslāmi ye Irān [d͡ʒomhuːˌɾije eslɒːˌmije ʔiːˈɾɒːn]), is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia, the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan; with Kazakhstan and Russia across the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world. With 78.4 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 17th-most-populous country. It is the only country that has both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. Iran has long been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz.

Şiran

Şiran, also Karaca, is a town and district of Gümüşhane Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It is one of the points of passage between Eastern Anatolia and Black Sea regions of Turkey, in the sense that the western road departing from Erzincan towards the Zigana Pass (the key pass between the two geographies) has its last urban stop in Şiran. According to the 2010 census, population of the district is 17,600 of which 8,207 live in the town of Şiran. The district covers an area of 928 km² (358 sq mi), and the town lies at an elevation of 1,457 m (4,780 ft).

Name

The name comes from Persian and means "the lions", although it is most likely to be an adaptation of the former Greek name of Cheriana (Χερίανα) adopted after the Turkish settlement in the region after and possibly even slightly before the Battle of Manzikert.

History

Many of the northern villages of the district was home to minority populations of Pontic Greeks until the 1922 Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, constituting the southern fringes of that community's extension. Some among the present population can also trace their roots to Greeks who had converted to Islam until as late as the end of the 19th century, as indicated by the Ottoman census and changed village names (for example, the present village of "Evren" was formerly called "Sefker").

Persian wine

Persian wine, also called Mey (Persian: می‎‎) and Badeh (باده), is a cultural symbol and tradition in Persia, and has a significant presence in Persian mythology, Persian poetry and Persian miniatures.

History

Recent archaeological research has pushed back the date of the known origin of wine making in Persia far beyond that which writers earlier in the 20th century had envisaged. Excavations at the Godin Tepe site in the Zagros mountains (Badler, 1995; McGovern and Michel, 1995; McGovern, 2003), have revealed pottery vessels dating from c. 3100–2900 BC containing tartaric acid, almost certainly indicating the former presence of wine. Even earlier evidence was found at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe, also in the Zagros mountains. Here, McGovern et al. (1996) used chemical analyses of the residue of a Neolithic jar dating from as early as 5400–5000 BC to indicate high levels of tartaric acid, again suggesting that the fluid contained therein had been made from grapes.

As book of Immortal Land Persian: سرزمین جاوید‎‎ or Sar Zamin e Javid] (by Zabihollah Mansoori) says Ramian wines were world-famous in the Parthian Empire. Ramian Wine is now a California wine brand but Shiraz wines are famous across the globe.