TEHRAN , Iran ( CNN ) -- The bodies of 152 people killed in a fiery plane crash in Iran Wednesday have been returned to their families , an Iranian state broadcaster reported Sunday . An Iranian Armenian woman places flower at crash site . Ahmad Majidi , the head of the special working group investigating the Caspian Airlines crash , also said a Russian team had arrived in Iran to help study the crash of the Russian-made plane , Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said . The plane went down in a field near the city of Qavzin Wednesday , killing all 168 people on board and leaving a huge smoldering crater . Majidi did not say what had happened to the 16 bodies that have not been handed over . The plane 's flight data recorders have been recovered and are being studied by Iranian and Russian experts , IRIB said . Fragments of the plane are also being examined to help determine the cause of the crash , Majidi said . The plane `` disintegrated into pieces , '' said Col. Masood Jafari Nasab , security commander of Qazvin . See a map of the crash location » . Video of the crash site showed a huge crater in the earth scattered with charred pieces of the plane and tattered passports . Watch as the flight data recorders are recovered » . `` The aircraft all of a sudden fell out of the sky and exploded on impact , where you see the crater , '' a witness told Iran 's government-backed Press TV from the crash site . Ten members of the country 's youth judo team were aboard the plane , several sources including Press TV reported . The government-backed network said the dead included eight athletes and two coaches . It was at least the fifth major airline accident in the world this year , following crashes of planes flown by Colgan Air , Turkish Airlines , Air France and Yemenia Airways . A US Airways pilot managed to land his plane safely on the Hudson river in New York City in January , with no major injuries , after the plane lost power . But aviation safety expert John Wiley said there was no reason to fear air travel in general , and no one airline or aircraft is particularly dangerous . Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 -- a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154M plane -- went down near the village of Jannatabad near Qazvin at 11:33 a.m. ( 2:03 a.m . ET ) Wednesday , Press TV reported . Conversations between the pilot and the ground were normal and did not indicate any technical problems , the network 's Web site reported , citing the managing director of Iran 's airport authority without naming him . The Tupolev 154 is essentially banned in the West because it does not comply with European noise and pollution regulations , but it has a safer-than-average accident record , Wiley said . Wednesday 's crash is the first on record for Caspian Airlines , which was founded in 1993 , he added . The plane crashed 16 minutes after takeoff , said the newspaper Hamshari , quoting a spokesman from Iran 's civil aviation organization . That would have put the flight in one of the safest stages of travel , according to International Air Transport Association data . Only about 5 percent of accidents take place during the phase called en-route climb , 16 to 20 minutes into a flight , when a plane climbs to cruising altitude of 35,000 feet . About half of accidents take place during landing .
Bodies of 152 people killed in plane crash in Iran returned to their families . The bodies were flown back from Tehran on a chartered flight and arrived at Mehrabad airport late Saturday night. Iran 's Press TV says flight data recorders of crashed plane damaged . All 168 aboard killed when Tupolev Tu-154M went down near Qazvin .