Tehran Analyses Downed Boeing Recorders, No Decision on Sending Them to Ukraine Yet – Iranian Media

On Saturday, the Tasnim News Agency quoted the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as saying that the black boxes from the downed jetliner were to be sent to Ukraine for examination.

Iran is decoding the flight recorders from the Boeing 737 that was accidentally downed earlier in January and has not taken a definitive decision to send them for analysis abroad, Hassan Rezaeifar, an aircraft safety inspector at the Civil Aviation Authority, stated on Sunday, as quoted by IRNA.
“We are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran. Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country”, Rezaeifar said.
The statement contradicts previous reports suggesting that Iran had authorised Ukrainian specialists to conduct the analysis of the black boxes.

Uncertainty over Examination of Flight Recorders

The decoding of the recorders has also been a contentious issue over the past few days, as the parties involved in the tragedy cannot agree whose specialists should carry out the analysis.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously urged Iran to send the black boxes to France. Kiev, in turn, requested that Tehran transfer the flight recorders to Ukraine.

Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed on 8 January near Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people on board. According to official data, 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three UK nationals were among the victims.

The Iranian military subsequently admitted to unintentionally shooting down the jetliner, having confused it with a hostile cruise missile in anticipation of US retaliation for Iran’s attack against Iraqi bases housing US military personnel. The Iranian leadership expressed deep regret, describing the tragedy as an “unforgivable mistake”.