[Asia Economy International Desk Reporter] The Iranian government plans to send the black box of the Ukrainian passenger plane, which was shot down in Iran resulting in the death of all passengers on board, to Ukraine for analysis.
On the 18th (local time), Hassan Rezaeifar, head of accident investigation at the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), stated to CNN that Iran is ready to request analysis assistance from experts in France, Canada, the United States, and other countries to read the black box of the crashed plane.
He added that it is impossible to analyze the black box in Iran and that the black box will first be sent to Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainian government. If it is difficult to read the black box in Ukraine as well, it will be sent to France for analysis.
Iran’s decision to transfer the black box came just one day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for the black box to be sent to France, which has advanced black box reading technology, for investigation. Fifty-seven Canadians also lost their lives in this accident.
On the 8th, a Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane that took off from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, Iran, was shot down by an air defense missile from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing all 176 passengers on board. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps explained that the air defense unit mistakenly identified the passenger plane as a U.S. cruise missile amid heightened military tensions with the United States, which were at a war-like level at the time.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane but insists that this incident, which occurred by mistake, should not be exploited as a political tool to pressure Iran. Seyed Abbas Mousavi, spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed condolences once again to the victims’ families in a statement released the previous day and emphasized, "The parties involved in the incident should not politically exploit humanitarian issues under the pretext of families who lost loved ones."
The five affected countries in this accident (Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) have urged Iran to conduct an independent and transparent international investigation involving all parties concerned and to compensate the victims.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
