Date:	Friday 15 March 1963
Time:	05:40
Type:	Avro 685 York C.1
Owner/operator:	Trans Mediterranean Airways - TMA
Registration:	OD-ACZ
MSN:	1218
Year of manufacture:	1945
Engine model:	Rolls-Royce Merlin
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	11 km SE of Karaj -   Iran
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Cargo
Departure airport:	Tehran-Mehrabad Airport (THR/OIII)
Destination airport:	Beirut International Airport (BEY/OLBA)
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The Avro York plane carried out a freight flight from Beirut to Tehran via Kuwait. On the Kuwait-Tehran leg of the flight several test manoeuvres were carried out by a check pilot who was examining the pilot in command and co-pilot for renewal of their licenses.
The flight arrived at Tehran at 17:40 GMT and departed Tehran again at 05:30 GMT. The crew didn't report when 25 miles out as requested; it appeared the plane had crashed 16 miles W of the airport.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The position of the propellers at the time of impact would indicate that, at a time when the no. 4 engine power was off, an emergency condition developed which necessitated the feathering of no. 3 engine and the unfeathering of no. 4. Alternatively, a loss of power on the starboard engines could have occurred from an erroneous manipulation of the feathering switches during the course of this assumed crew checking exercise. In view of the fact that the fully loaded aircraft was flying at a low altitude after taking off from Mehrabad Airport which has an elevation of 3900 feet, it is evident that at the aircraft would not have sufficient altitude for the pilot to take effective recovery action and so avoid a crash resulting from the above mentioned loss-of-power conditions."

ICAO Accident Digest No.15 - Volume II, Circular 78-AN/66 (29-33)

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