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January 16, 2011 About 25,000 Iranians have reacted to last week’s crash of Iran Air
flight 277 by joining an online protest against sanctions that prevent
Iran from purchasing new aircraft and spare parts.

The protesters
believe sanctions undermine aviation safety standards and are therefore
to be blamed for a string of air accidents that have claimed the lives
of hundreds of Iranians.

Seventy-seven people were killed
on January 9 when a passenger plane with some 105 passengers and crew
aboard crashed in northwestern Iran. The Boeing-727 plane, which
according to Iranian media was 37 years old, broke into pieces when it
attempted to make an emergency landing in a snowstorm near the city of
Orumiyeh.

It was the latest in a series of air crashes blamed on
Iran’s aging air fleet, which reportedly uses spare parts bought on the
black market or taken from older aircraft. Experts have said that
U.S.-imposed sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old
American aircraft.

According to "The New York Times,”<... >>>