A Ukrainian commercial airliner crashed on January 8 soon after taking off from Iran’s capital, Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, mostly Iranian nationals, but also Western and Ukrainian citizens.
On January 9, unidentified U.S. officials said they were confident that Iranian air defense systems accidentally downed the Boeing 737-800, based on satellite, radar and electronic data. Newsweek quoted a Pentagon and a senior U.S. intelligence official, as well as an Iraqi intelligence official, as saying they believed the Ukrainian plane was hit by a Russian-made Tor missile.
Debris and smoldering parts from the aircraft belonging to Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) were strewn across a field southwest of the Iranian capital’s Imam Khomeini International Airport as rescue teams with face masks retrieved bodies.
The crash of UIA Flight 752 came just hours after Iran launched a ballistic-missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qasem Soleimani.
The three-year-old aircraft was en route to Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities said the victims included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, including all nine crew, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Britons and three Germans.
Ukraine takes action
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that he had instructed the country’s prosecutor general to open criminal proceedings over the crash. He declared January 9 as a day of mourning.
Ukraine sent a team of experts to Iran to investigate the circumstances of the crash. “Our priority is to establish the truth and those responsible for this terrible catastrophe,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on Facebook.
Mr. Zelenskyy also said the airworthiness of Ukraine’s entire civilian fleet will be tested.
“My sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of all passengers and crew,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, announcing that he was breaking off his visit to Oman to return to Kyiv.
Iran and Ukraine agreed “to coordinate further actions of our investigation groups closely to determine the cause of the terrible plane crash,” according to Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Vadym Prystaiko.
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said Kyiv was examining whether a missile strike had brought down the aircraft.
In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will “work closely with its international partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated, and that Canadians’ questions are answered.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was prepared to offer Ukraine “all possible assistance… with any investigation into the cause of the crash.”
Early reports about crash
Ukraine’s Embassy in Tehran initially blamed engine failure but later removed the statement. An Embassy official said Iranian authorities had asked it to rescind an earlier statement from Iran based on preliminary information.
Iranian TV said the crash was due to unspecified technical problems, and Iranian media quoted a local aviation official as saying the pilot did not declare an emergency.
State media reported that the plane caught fire after crashing, but a video aired by the state broadcaster appeared to show the plane already on fire as it fell from the night sky.
In a comment on Facebook, Mr. Zelenskyy warned against speculation about the crash. “I ask everyone to keep from speculating and putting forth unconfirmed theories about the crash,” he wrote.
UIA said the plane underwent its last technical maintenance on January 6. It also said all flights to Tehran have been suspended indefinitely. The company said in a statement that most passengers were in transit and due to connect to other flights on arrival in Ukraine.
The plane’s two black boxes have been retrieved and are being investigated by Iranian aviation experts, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
The public prosecutor’s office in Tehran said the remains of all passengers had been brought to forensics experts.
Airline manufacturers usually assist in crash investigations, but such an effort could be affected in this case by U.S. sanctions reinstated after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in May 2018.
Iran’s semiofficial news agency Mehr quoted the head of the country’s civil aviation authority as saying Iran would not give the black boxes to Boeing.
The Boeing 737-800 is a common single-aisle, twin-engine jetliner used for short- to medium-range flights. Thousands of the planes are used by airlines around the world. Introduced in the late 1990s, it is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes.
With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, Newsweek, Fars, DPA and IRNA.
Copyright 2020, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036; www.rferl.org (see original news story at https://www.rferl.org/a/reports-ukrainian-plane-with-at-least-170-aboard-crashes-near-tehran-in-iran/30365544.html and updated information at https://www.rferl.org/a/reports-ukraine-plane-was-brought-down-by-iranian-missile-u-s-officials-say/30368793.html).