The nature of the technical failure was unclear. Abbas Mosayebi, a spokesman for the Iranian civil aviation organization, said only that the plane faced an incident, state television reported.
The network also said the aircraft disappeared from radar and went down in farmland after making a second attempt to land. There was no word on what might have caused the crash.
The aircraft, which took off an hour later than scheduled, was headed from Tehran to Orumiyeh, capital of West Azerbaijan Province, a distance of about 460 miles.
State television aired footage showing rescue workers and local farmers searching for survivors last night in parts of the wrecked plane under snowfall and in the darkness.
Thirty-five people survived, including two crew members, said Javad Mahmoudi, another deputy governor for West Azerbaijan, speaking to state television.
Some of the passengers were only slightly injured and were able to walk off the plane, and some had to be hospitalized, Mosayebi said.
Heavy snow complicated rescue efforts, said Gholam Reza, the head of the State Emergency Canter. Fog was also reported in the area.
The plane broke into several pieces, but there was no explosion or fire, said Mahmoud Mozaffar, head of the rescue department of Iran’s Red Crescent Society.
Iran has a history of frequent air accidents blamed on its aging aircraft and poor maintenance. Iranian airlines, including those run by the state, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts said.
US sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft, such as Boeing and Airbus models, and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union’s fall.
In July 2009 a Russian-made jetliner crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board.
In February 2003 a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard.
Yesterday, Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State, defended the international sanctions against Iran and said the world must keep pressure on Tehran over its suspect nuclear program.
Clinton told reporters accompanying her on a three-nation tour of the Persian Gulf that Iran remains a serious concern no matter when it might be able to produce a nuclear weapon.
