Iran has said it has made no decision on whether to send black boxes from the downed jetliner to Ukraine in an apparent U-turn over plans.
Hassan Rezaeifar, the Iranian official leading the investigation, made the comments a day after saying they would be sent to Kyiv for analysis.
He was quoted by state-run Irna news agency as saying: “The flight recorders from the Ukrainian Boeing are in Iranian hands and we have no plans to send them out.”
He said Iran was working to recover the data and cabin recordings, and that it may send the flight recorders – commonly known as black boxes – to Ukraine or France.
“But as of yet, we have made no decision,” he said.
The same official was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Saturday as saying the recorders would be sent to Ukraine, where French, American and Canadian experts would help analyse them. Iranian officials previously said the black boxes were damaged but usable.
The Revolutionary Guard accidentally shot the plane down shortly after it took off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board.
Hours earlier, the guard had launched ballistic missiles at US troops in Iraq in response to the US air strike that killed Iran’s top general in Baghdad.
Officials say lower-level officers mistook the plane for a US cruise missile.
Iranian officials initially said the crash was caused by a technical problem and invited countries that lost citizens to help investigate. Three days later, Iran 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 people from Sweden, 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.
The plane was a Boeing 737-800 that was designed and built in the US. The plane’s 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.
(c) Evening Standard
“Iranian officials previously said the black boxes were damaged but usable.”
Yeah, I guess they need some more damage inflicted on them before the terrorists release them.
No doubt they are hiding something. We know such U-turns well from Russia. Yes, no, yes, maybe, eventually, later… and finally no and never.
Next move will be, we’ll send them to Russia to be analyzed, we trust them.
Yeah, i can already imagine what such an analysis by russian ‘experts’ will look like…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa73df663aef7de38a02ea3258fdfbf444a67e615fdf9d9b9c17e5c748b25a9f.jpg
Probably what the Iranians have already done, that’s why they will never go to the West to be analyzed.
Iran is a very fucked-up muslim trash country, like just about every other muslim trash country in this world.
Officials say lower-level officers mistook the plane for a US cruise missile.
God help us then, their higher level Officers are about as intelligent as Bitch Stewie.
Meanwhile, European leaders whine about pulling out of the nuclear deal. Obviously the Iranian regime cannot be trusted to honor any agreement or act civilized.
It makes me wonder if the Iranians even know that the Moskali had remote control over the Tor and fired it in a false flag operation that would implicate the Iranian regime. No wonder the messaging is so inconsistent because the messengers are also inconsistent. I guess we will find out who really runs the security in Iran.
Plenty of chatter from Iran and various Kremlin sites about the US hacking this missile system, also the US hacked the transponder on the Boeing, according to many conspiracy sites. What is annoying, all the media in the West coming out with statements like “the accidental shooting down of the plane.” How about just saying the Ukrainian plane was shot down, until proven accidental or otherwise.
Now you’re on to the main sin of the media. They usually parrot the initial information which often comes from the Kremlinals. Remember the invasion of the Donbas and the echos of separatism, civil war when there was zero proof of it? This makes our jobs here even more important to answer the Moskali propaganda.