Crashed private jet was carrying bride-to-be, friends on bachelorette trip to Dubai

The Turkish private jet that crashed in southwestern Iran - on its way from Sharjah to Istanbul - was carrying a bride-to-be and her seven friends on a bachelorette party, and an all-female crew on board.

All 11 women died in the accident. This was was reported by several Turkish news websites on Sunday evening.

Mina Basaran, the 28-year-old heiress daughter of a business tycoon, was returning from her bachelorette party in Dubai, when the tragic incident occurred.

Besides the eight friends, three female crew members were onboard the plane that crashed 370 km to the south of Tehran in the Zagros mountains, Hurriyet.com reported. The jet is reported to have encountered heavy, rainy weather, crashed into a mountain and burst into flames.

In fact, the crashed jet - a Bombardier Challenger C600 series - belonged to Mina's father, Huseyin Basaran, of the Basaran Yatirim Holding business conglomerate in Turkey, with interests in construction, tourism, aviation, hotels, food, energy and more.

Turkey's Haber Turk website  stated that Mina was to marry businessman Murat Gezer on April 14 in a grand ceremony at Istanbul's Cirali Palace. She was also readying to take over her father's business.

Mina, one of two children, led a luxurious, jet-setting lifestyle as seen from her social media accounts.

In her Instagram pictures, the happy bride-to-be is seen posing with her friends during their bachelorette holiday in Dubai, and in front of and inside the doomed plane. The group had travelled to Dubai on Friday for a three-day girl's trip.

Mina's friends on the tragic flight were named as Zeynep Coskun, Ayse And, Burcu Urfali, Asli Izmirli, Liana Hananel, Jasmin Baruh and Sinem Akay. The pilots were Melike Kuvvet and Beril Gebes, and the hostess was Eda Uslu.

Eyewitness reported seeing one of the plane's engines on fire, before it crashed.

Iranian emergency services and rescuers were reported to be having a tough time reaching the crash site, due to the poor weather and mountain terrain.

In February this year, an Iranian ATR-72 domestic plane also crashed in southern Iran, killing 65 aboard.