Iran says they will send black box recorders to Ukraine for further analysis after killing 176 people when they accidentally shot down plane
- The Boeing 737 was shot down shortly after it took off from Tehran on January 8
- Head of Accident Investigations said it was not possible to read the boxes in Iran
- French, American and Canadian experts will instead analyse them in Kyiv
Iranian officials have said that they will send black box recorders to Ukraine for further analysis after killing 176 people when they accidentally shot down a plane.
Hassan Rezaeifer, the head of accident investigations for the civil aviation department, said it was not possible to read the jet’s black boxes in Iran – but he did not elaborate further.
He said that instead French, American and Canadian experts would help analyse them in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Iran accidentally shot down the Boeing 737 shortly after it took off from Tehran on January 8 – killing all 176 people on board
Officials have now said that further analysis of the plane’s flight recorders (pictured), also known as black boxes, was not possible in Iran
Mr Rezaeifer added that if that was unsuccessful then the black box recorders would be sent to France.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard accidentally shot the plane down just two minutes after it took off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board.
The Guard had launched ballistic missiles at American troops in Iraq just hours earlier in response to the US airstrike that killed Iran’s top commander, General Qassem Soleimani.
Officials say lower-level officers mistook the plane for an American cruise missile.
Iran had initially said the crash was caused by a technical problem and invited countries that lost citizens to help investigate.
Officials say lower-level officers mistook the plane for an American cruise missile. Pictured: An image from the flight tracker website Flightradar24 showing the path of the Ukranian International Airlines jet which crashed just over two minutes after take off
Iran initially issued contradictory statements about who will be allowed to examine the black boxes (pictured). But now say that French, American and Canadian experts would help analyze them in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv
But three days later, it admitted responsibility after Western leaders said there was strong evidence the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile.
The victims included 57 Canadian citizens as well as 11 Ukrainians, 17 Swedes , four Afghans and four British citizens.
Most of those killed were Iranians.
The other five nations have demanded Iran accept full responsibility and pay compensation to the victims’ families.
Bulldozers were working at the site of the crash last week but the site has apparently been left unsupervised since then
Rescuers combed through the remains of the crashed Boeing plane which had been designed and built in America
The plane, which was a Boeing 737-800, was designed and built in America.
Its engine was designed by CFM International – a joint company between French group Safran and US group GE Aviation.
Investigators from both countries have been invited to take part in the probe.