DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran is trying to analyze the black boxes of a Ukrainian airliner that was shot down this month, the state IRNA news agency reported on Sunday, denying a report that a decision had been taken to send the plane’s recorders to Ukraine.
Canada, which had 57 citizens on the plane in which 176 people were killed, and other nations who lost nationals have been calling on Iran for a thorough investigation and have said the flight data and voice recorders should be analyzed abroad.
Ottawa has said the recorders, or black boxes, should be sent to France, after the military admitted shooting down Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 in error in the tense aftermath of tit-for-tat strikes by the United States and Iran.
“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,” Hassan Rezaifar, a director in charge of accident investigations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, told IRNA.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency had said on Saturday the black boxes were being sent to Ukraine. It reported that Iran would not seek to read them at home.
Ukraine has previously said it expected Iran to hand over the black boxes to Ukraine.
Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Edmund Blair
Image: FILE PHOTO: The crate containing purportedly the two black boxes recovered from the crashed Ukrainian airliner, Boeing 737-800, is seen in this still image taken from a video, in Tehran, Iran January 10, 2020. IRIB VIA WANA/Handout via REUTERS
