An Iranian plane carrying migrant workers crashed as it came in to land at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates this morning, killing 43 of the 46 people on board.
The Kish Airline plane, a Dutch-made twin-engined Fokker-50, smashed into the desert, three kilometres from the airport and between two residential areas, at 11 a.m.
Officials blamed a technical fault and said they had retrieved the plane's black box. Witnesses saw a wobbling plane making strange engine noises which then nosedived.
"Forty three people died and three survived," Civil Aviation official Ahmad bu Kallah told Reuters.
He said a Filipino, an Iranian and the one other survivor were in critical condition.
The dead included at least 11 Iranian passengers and all six Iranian crew.
Sharjah airport officials said passengers were from India, Iran, UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Nepal, Syria, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sudan and Cameroon.
Another Civil Aviation official, Ghanem al-Hajiri, said the plane had made contact with Sharjah airport before it crashed.
It was the sixth crash involving Iranian planes since 2000.
One witness said it had gone into a nose-dive. "From the impact of the crash it overturned, split into two and then burst into flames," the witness added.
Builders at a nearby site said they saw the plane wobbling as it descended and heard strange noises coming from the engine.