Iranian authorities blame pilot for crash

Iran's civil aviation authorities have announced that the Armenian pilot was to blame for the crash of a Russian-made plane earlier this month, which killed the transport minister and about 30 others.

A senior official said the investigation, which was also helped by Russian experts, had shown that the accident was due to human error.

He said the final results of the inquiry would be made public soon.

The transport minister, Rahman Dadman, his two deputies and seven members of parliament were among those killed when the aircraft went down in bad weather.

The two pilots and three other crew members were Armenian.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service