Iran to send black boxes of downed Ukrainian jet to France in July: UN agency
Iran will send the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger jet shot down in January to France to be deciphered next month, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said, Trend reports citing RCI.
Fifty-five Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents of Canada were among the 176 people killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down by two Iranian missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Jan. 8.
After initially denying any responsibility for the crash, Iranian officials were forced to admit that an IRGC air defence battery unintentionally shot down the airliner minutes after departing Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport amid heightened tensions with U.S. forces in neighbouring Iraq.
The Montreal-based UN civil aviation agency announced on Twitter that Iran had informed it that the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder would be read out in France on July 20 with the participation of all countries involved.
The French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authority, BEA, confirmed that Iran had requested its technical assistance with repairing the boxes and downloading their data.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board confirmed that agency “has been invited to participate in the download of the recorders and will deploy a team of investigators who specialize in aircraft recorder download and analysis.”
In a joint statement, Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Transport Minister Marc Garneau welcomed the announcement.
“We will continue to hold Iran to account and seek accountability, transparency, justice and compensation for the victims of this tragedy, including a thorough, credible and transparent investigation,” said the statement.
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