SHARJAH, Feb 10: An Iranian plane carrying migrant workers crashed as it came in to land at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, killing 44 of the 46 people on board.

The Kish Airline plane, a Dutch-made twin-engined Fokker-50, smashed into the desert, two miles from the airport and between two residential areas, at 11.00am (1200 PST).

Officials blamed a technical fault and said they had retrieved the plane's black box. Witnesses saw a wobbling plane making strange engine noises which then nosedived.

"Forty-four people died and three survived," Civil Aviation official Ahmad bu Kallah told Reuters. The dead included at least 11 Iranian passengers and all six Iranian crew.

"Two of the survivors are in a critical condition. The third is conscious and stable," said Mohammed Musalaheddin, an orthopaedics physician at Sharjah's Al Qassimi hospital.

Sharjah airport officials said passengers were from India, Iran, UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Nepal, Syria, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sudan and Cameroon.

Another Civil Aviation official, Ghanem al-Hajiri, said the plane had made contact with Sharjah airport before it crashed. It was the sixth crash involving Iranian planes since 2000.

One witness said it had gone into a nose-dive. "From the impact of the crash it overturned, split into two and then burst into flames," the witness added. Builders at a nearby site said they saw the plane wobbling as it descended and heard strange noises coming from the engine.

Rescue teams wearing face masks loaded charred bodies into a large refrigerated truck while others searched for more bodies. Shocked relatives, some crying, watched television images of the wreckage at Sharjah airport.

Iran's Aviation Authority said the plane had asked for an emergency landing as it was coming into Sharjah, then deviated to the left and crashed. It said Iran would send a team to help investigate. -Reuters