A Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed after departing from Tehran on January 8 was shot down by two short-range ground-to-air missiles, according to the second preliminary investigation report of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran.
According to Bloomberg agency, according to the report, the missiles were launched by UIA Boeing 737-800 airliner from Tor-M1 SAM system from the northern direction.
According to the investigation, the aircraft departed Tehran at 6:12 a.m. local time and lost contact with air traffic controllers at an altitude of 8,100 feet (almost 2,469 meters). The aircraft disappeared from secondary surveillance screens at 6:15 and from primary surveillance screens at 6:18.
The recovered flight data recorder and cockpit recorder are “some of the most advanced of its kind in the world,” and Iran has no means to decode them, the agency said.
“French and U.S. aviation accident investigation agencies have refused to send the necessary equipment to Iran to decrypt the black boxes”, – it said.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, on 20 January, at a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a special representative of Iranian President Mohammad Eslami in Kiev, it was said that a group of Iranian representatives would arrive in Ukraine to get acquainted with Ukraine’s technical capabilities to decrypt “black boxes” of the shot down aircraft. They also discussed the issue of compensating the relatives and friends of the victims and establishing a joint investigation group to ensure an effective investigation and establish the truth.
A Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft of the UIA airline, which was to fly PS752 on the Tehran-Kiev route, crashed near Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran right after takeoff in the early morning of January 8. There were 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. They were all killed. Among the dead were 11 Ukrainian citizens (including 9 crew members), 82 Iranian, 63 Canadian, 10 Swedish, 4 Afghan, 3 each from Germany and the UK.
The Iranian authorities admitted on January 11 that Boeing was shot down by mistake by the Iranian military. Later, the Commander of the Aerospace Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Amir Ali Hajizade stated that he takes full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.