The aircraft's history reads like a condensed version of modern Iran. Built by Boeing and delivered to the Imperial Iranian Air Force in November 1976 as serial 5-8312, it served the Shah's military until the 1979 revolution transformed the force into the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. In February 2000, the IRIAF transferred it to Saha Airlines, a semi-military carrier, and re-registered it as EP-SHK. Nine years later, on August 3, 2009, the plane suffered an uncontained engine failure during a flight from Ahvaz to Tehran. The crew made an emergency landing at Ahvaz, and the aircraft was repaired. It shuttled between the air force and Saha Airlines once more before receiving its final registration, EP-CPP, in May 2016. By 2019, it was a relic flying cargo routes that newer aircraft had long abandoned.

The cargo flight departed Manas International Airport in Bishkek carrying meat bound for Payam International Airport, a civilian field near Karaj with adequate runway length for a 707. But the crew landed instead at Fath Air Base, a military installation nearby. Investigators believe they mistook Fath's runway for Payam's. The difference was fatal. Payam's runway could accommodate the 707 comfortably. Fath Air Base's runway measured only 1,300 meters, roughly half what a 707 requires to stop safely. Poor weather conditions compounded the error. By the time the crew realized their mistake, the aircraft was already on the ground with far too little pavement remaining.

The 707 overran the end of the runway at speed. It crashed through a perimeter wall and came to rest after colliding with a house in the neighborhood of Farrokhabad, in Fardis County, Alborz province. Security cameras captured the final moments: the aircraft tearing through the boundary, erupting in flames as it struck the residential structure. The houses it hit were empty at the time. No one on the ground was injured. But of the sixteen crew members aboard, fifteen died. The sole survivor was Farshad Mahdavinejad, the flight engineer, who was pulled from the wreckage in critical condition and transported to Shariati Hospital in Tehran.

The crash of EP-CPP ended more than sixteen lives. It ended the operational history of the Boeing 707 in civilian service. The type had entered airline service in 1958, inaugurating the jet age for commercial aviation. For six decades, 707s carried passengers and cargo across every continent. By 2019, international sanctions and the difficulty of obtaining spare parts had made Iran one of the last countries still flying the type. The aircraft that crashed at Fath Air Base was the final one. Its cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the wreckage on January 14, the same day as the crash; the flight data recorder was recovered three days later on January 17. An investigation was opened. The 707's story, which began in the optimism of the jet age, ended in fog on a runway it was never meant to use.