The Iranian cargo plane coming from Kyrgyzstan crashed while trying to land west of the capital Tehran, state media reported.
The plane was set to land at Karaj's Payam Airport but the pilot mistook it for the adjacent Fath airfield, which is not suited to servicing cargo aircraft.
The Iranian army said only one person - a flight engineer - of the 16 people onboard was found alive, and taken to hospital.
The airplane departed from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, carrying cargo and 16 people, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
A spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport said the plane, en route from Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport, belonged to Iran's Payam Air.
More news: Monaco sign Chelsea's Fabregas on three-and-a-half-year dealIranian state television aired images of smoke-charred homes and the fuselage of the aircraft lying on the ground in the neighborhood.
It tried to land at a non-commercial airport near a residential area instead of a cargo airport some four kilometres away. Iranian media reported seven bodies from the crash had already been recovered.
The plane "overshot the runway during its landing", Reza Jafarzadeh, a spokesman for Iran's aviation organisation, told broadcaster IRIB.
Maintenance information regarding the Boeing 707 that crashed Monday was not immediately available.
The Boeing 707, a four-engine, narrow-body jet, entered service back in 1957. The air force does operate Boeing 707s.
