Tehran: Iran ruled out Friday a missile strike as the cause of a Ukrainian passenger plane crash near Tehran, saying such a scenario made ‘no sense’. However, even then as allegations of a missile strike being the cause of the crash, Tehran asked Canada to share intel about the cause of the ‘rumour’.
The plane crashed shortly after taking off Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board, shortly after Iran fired a volley of missiles against military bases in Iraq housing US personnel.
“Several internal and international flights were flying at the same time in Iranian airspace at the same altitude of 8,000 feet (2,440 metres),” Iran’s transport ministry said. “This story of a missile striking a plane cannot be correct at all,” it said in a statement.
“Such rumours make no sense,” Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation and deputy transport minister, said in the statement.
Abedzadeh was reacting to rumours on social networks that the Boeing 737 was hit by a missile fired by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He also informed that Iran and Ukraine were in the process of ‘downloading information’ from black boxes retrieved from the crash site. “But if more specialised work is required to extract and analyse the data, we can do it in France or another country,” he added.
Iranian authorities say initial indications showed the plane had turned back after suffering a problem. A team of Ukrainian experts flew in and joined the investigation on the ground Thursday.
Meanwhile British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that there is ‘a body of information’ that the Ukrainian Boeing 747 that crashed in Iran, was brought down by an Iranian missile.
“There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian Surface to Air Missile. This may well have been unintentional,” Johnson said in a statement on the air disaster in which four British passengers died.
“We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation into the plane crash,” said Johnson.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday ‘multiple’ intelligence sources indicate that Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner after it took off from Tehran.
Trudeau’s comments came as images posted on social media increasingly pointed to a catastrophic mistake by Tehran’s air defense batteries bringing the down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in flames Wednesday.
Citing information from allies as well as Canada’s own intelligence, the prime minister said the plane appeared to have been hit by an Iranian surface-to-air (SAM) missile.
“We know this may have been unintentional. Canadians have questions, and they deserve answers,” Trudeau told reporters in Montreal.
US President Donald Trump also indicated that Washington officials believed the Kiev-bound Boeing 737 was struck by one or more Iranian missiles before it ditched and exploded outside Tehran.
Tehran has asked Ottawa to share its information with Iranian investigators.
Trudeau said Canada was working with allies to ensure a credible probe takes place. “The families of the victims want answers, Canadians want answers, I want answers,” asserted Trudeau.
“That means closure, transparency, accountability, and justice. This government will not rest until we get that,” added Trudeau.
Trump would not directly confirm what US intelligence was saying privately.
“I have my suspicions,” Trump said in Washington. “It (aircraft) was flying in a pretty rough neighbourhood and somebody could have made a mistake. Some people say it was mechanical. I personally don’t think that’s even a question. Something very terrible happened,” added the US president.
But unnamed officials told US media satellite, radar and electronic data indicated Tehran’s air defense units downed the aircraft.
‘ABC News’ reported that an unnamed official said it was ‘highly likely’ the plane was brought down by two SAMs.
Analysts were examining photographs posted online of the wreckage and a private video apparently taken of the flight when it was struck for evidence that it was downed by a missile.
‘The New York Times’ said it had verified the video showing a small explosion apparently when a missile struck the aircraft.
“I think this has a very good possibility of being accurate,” John Goglia, a former US aviation safety expert on the National Transportation Safety Board, said of the missile theory.
“Airplanes that have just taken off and have made a climb to 8,000 feet, that’s entering the safest period of time in the flight. So even an engine failure at that altitude should not cause the type of event we’ve just observed,” Goglia asserted.
Meanwhile Iran, alluding to ‘doubtful scenarios’, challenged international suggestions that the Ukrainian airliner that crashed outside Tehran this week was mistakenly downed by an Iranian missile.
Iran’s foreign ministry also invited the US planemaker Boeing to ‘participate’ in its enquiry into the crash. It also said it was prepared to allow experts from the countries who lost people in the crash to help with the enquiry.
In another development the US National Transporation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday it will join the probe into the Ukrainian Boeing airliner which went down in Iran.
“The NTSB has designated an accredited representative to the investigation of the crash,” said the agency.
Agencies