For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Video has emerged appearing to show the moment a plane burst into flames just after taking off from an airport in Iran , before plunging to the ground.
The deadly crash took place on Wednesday morning as the Boeing 737-800 left Imam Khomeini International Airport in Iran .
Officials in both Iran and Ukraine, where the plane was heading, have said they do not expect to find any survivors and suggested the accident was caused by a mechanical failure.
The video, which has not yet been independently verified, was taken by an Iranian on their phone and purports to show the burning jet plummeting through the sky.
When it hits the ground the area, which is in darkness, it is briefly illuminated by a sudden burst of light and flame.
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in picturesShow all 35 1 /35US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures This photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office shows a burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, early Friday 3 January
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures The wreckage of the car in which general Soleimani was travelling when a targeted US airstrike struck outside Baghdad International Airport on 3 January
Ahmad Al Mukhtar via Reuters
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Demonstrators burn the US and British flags during a protest in Tehran after general Soleimani was killed in a targeted airstrike by American forces
Reuters
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike. The Pentagon said Thursday that the US military has killed general Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, at the direction of Donald Trump
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Protesters burn Israeli and US flags as thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of general Soleimani at the hands of America
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Supporters of Donald Trump pray at an 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event held on the day following the killing of general Soleimani. At the event, the president praised the "flawless strike that eliminated the terrorist ringleader"
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A huge procession of mourners gather in Baghdad for the funeral of general Soleimani on 4 January
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of Soleimani during an anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iraqis perform a mourning prayer for slain major general Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the Great Mosque of Kufa
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A billboard reading 'Death to America and Israel', installed by Iran-backed shiite armed groups at a street in Jadriyah district in Baghdad, Iraq
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him visiting the family of Soleiman
KHAMENEI.IR/AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Thousands of Iranians take to the streets in Tehran
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn a mock of a US flag as they hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, outside the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Jalal Feiruznia, looks to a portrait of Soleimani, as he receives condolences at the Iranian embassy, in Beirut, Lebanon
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures People make their way on the street while a screen on the wall of a cinema shows a portrait Soleimani in Tehran
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Aziz Asmar, one of two Syrian painters who completed a mural following the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani poses next to his creation in the rebel-held Syrian town of Dana in the northwestern province of Idlib
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A demonstration in Tehran
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures An anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Mujtaba al-Husseini, the representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivers a speech in the holy shrine city of Najaf
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn a mock of a US and Israeli flags as they hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, outside the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Protesters demonstrate in Tehran
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Pakistani Shi'ite Muslims hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, in Peshawar, Pakistan
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Protesters, holding a photograph of the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran Massoud Rajavi, outside Downing Street in London
PA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Protesters burn a US flag in Tehran
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A Syrian man offers sweets to children to mark the killing
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iranian worshippers attend a mourning prayer for Soleimani in Iran's capital Tehran
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout anti American and anti Israel slogans during a protest
AP
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iranian worshipers chant slogans during Friday prayers
Reuters
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures A protest against the USA, in Islamabad, Pakistan
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iranians burn a US flag in Tehran
EPA
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany (NWRI) protest outside Iran's embassy in Berlin, Germany
Reuters
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany (NWRI) protest outside Iran's embassy in Berlin
Reuters
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iranian worshippers in Tehran
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Vehicles of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol a road in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila near the border with Israel. Following morning's killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement called for the missile strike by Israel's closest ally, to be avenged
AFP via Getty
US airstrike kills Iran's Qassem Soleimani: Fallout in pictures Iranian women take to the streets in Tehran
EPA
Although the crash came just hours after Iran launched a series of missile attacks on US army bases in Iraq – in retaliation for the killing of the general Qassem Soleimani – there is currently no evidence it is connected to the ongoing fallout between Iran and America.
A statement from Ukraine’s Security Council said there were 168 passengers and nine crew members registered to on board the Boeing passenger jet.
Reza Jafarzadeh, the civil aviation spokesperson, said: “An investigation team from the national aviation department was dispatched to the location after the news was announced.”
Iran plane crash: Ukrainian Boeing 737 passenger jet carrying 177 comes down A photo later published by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency showed rescue officials in a farm field, with what appeared to be pieces of the aircraft laying nearby.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies