11.01.2020 12:10The black box recordings of the Ukraine International Airlines plane, which was accidentally shot down by Iranian military near Tehran on January 8, will be downloaded in France.

“Black box recordings of the Ukrainian airliner, which crashed on the outskirt of Tehran on Wednesday, will be downloaded in France,” head of the accident investigation board of Civil Aviation Organization of Iran, Hassan Rezaeifar told Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Saturday.

According to Rezaeifar, Iran made use of all its facilities to examine the content of the black box inside the country but the country lacks the needed technology to decode it. That’s why, the black box will be sent to France to avoid any damage to it.

Rezaeifar said Iran asked Canada, France and the US to bring their software and hardware equipment to Tehran to download the data of the black box of the Ukrainian plane, but they did not accept Iran’s proposal. Then, Iran asked Ukraine, Sweden, Britain, Canada, and the US to send the black box to an impartial laboratory and France was the country all five countries agreed on, the official added.

As reported, Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on Wednesday, January 8.

There were 176 people on board – 167 passengers (including two Ukrainians) and nine crew members (all Ukrainians). There were 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, ten citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany, and three citizens of the UK.

Previously, it was claimed that the crash had been caused by technical problems. Early today, Iran announced that it had shot down the UIA passenger plane accidentally. The plane was perceived as a hostile object as it made an unexpected turn toward a sensitive military base after take-off.

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani apologized for downing UIA passenger jet by Iranian military and expressed his condolences to the families of crash victims.

 “The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake. The Armed Forces’ internal investigation had concluded that regrettably missiles fired due to human error caused the horrific crash of the Ukrainian plane and death of 176 innocent people,” Rouhani posted on Twitter, noting that the investigations continued\ to identify and prosecute this great tragedy.

(C)UKRINFORM 2020