Heavy snow and blizzards have hampered efforts by Iranian search-and-rescue teams to recover the bodies of the 66 people aboard a plane that crashed near a mountain peak in the country’s southwest.
Isfahan Governorate General Office said that 32 bodies have been recovered so far, but none of them have been transferred to the ground from the site of the crash, around 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) up snow-covered Mount Dena.
However, an Army commander said that seven bodies are being taken to the foot of the mountain, and the rest will be transferred within the next four hours.
The Aseman Airlines ATR-72 plane was flying over the Zagros mountain range to the southwestern city of Yasuj on Sunday when it disappeared from the radar around the town of Semirom in Isfahan Province.
Helicopters managed to spot the plane’s debris two days later after weather conditions improved.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi said all efforts are directed at reaching the aircraft’s black box to find out what exactly caused the Aseman Airliner to go down.
A deputy Army commander also said that rescue teams have failed to go to the mountaintop as helicopters failed to reach there due to poor visibility.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also said that 24 expert teams carrying 30 stretchers are climbing the mountain to take the bodies to the ground.
Local officials said rescue teams are only carrying out ground operations to recover the bodies as the visibility has been reduced to two meters in the region.