Iran agrees to transfer flight recorders from downed UIA plane to Ukraine

Iran agreed to return the flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airline (IUA) plane, which was downed near Tehran on January 8, to Ukraine.

“Iran confirms it has agreed to transfer the PS752 black boxes to Ukraine and (if additional expertise needed) on to France, – Farhad Parvaresh, Iran’s Representative to ICAO [the International Civil Aviation Organization], at the ICAO Council session in Montreal. Ukraine welcomes Iran’s decision,” Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andrei Shevchenko wrote on Twitter.

A Boeing 737-800 of Ukraine International Airlines crashed in the vicinity of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport soon after takeoff on January 8. None of the 167 passengers and nine crewmembers survived the crash. There were 11 citizens of Ukraine, 82 citizens of Iran, 73 of Canada, ten of Sweden, four of Afghanistan, three of Germany, and three of the United Kingdom on board the plane.

Iranian authorities acknowledged on January 11, that the Boeing was downed by the Iranian military by mistake. Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Forces Amir Ali Hajizadeh assumed full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.