Iran urges nations to not politicise data from downed Ukrainian plane

Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization on August 23 said the Ukrainian plane that was downed in January this year was hit by two missiles 25 seconds apart from each other. The agency said that the cockpit voice recorder was able to capture only 19 seconds of difference because it was damaged by the first missile. The reading showed that passengers on board did not die after the first missile hit the plane as 19 seconds after the impact, voices of the pilots from inside the cockpit indicated that travellers were alive. Touraj Dehghani-Zanganeh, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation said that the readings could not confirm the effects of the second missile as the black boxes was damaged 19 seconds after the first missile hit.

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According to media reports, Touraj Dehghani-Zanganeh further urged that the data from the downed Ukrainian plane should not be politicised. Iran is currently in talks with Ukraine to decide on the compensation that needs to be paid to the families of the victims. The Islamic Republic will reportedly hold another round of talks in October this year. Iran is also in talks with Canada and other nations that had their citizens on board the plane shot down by the country's Revolutionary Guards. The investigation into the downing of the plane is being carried out in accordance with the set of rules issued by the United Nations. 

Read: Iran Sends Down Ukrainian Plane's Black Box To France

The crash

The passenger plane crashed on January 8 when it was hit by two missiles fired by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who were on high alert at that time due to the tensions between Washington and Tehran. Iran had fired missiles on US bases in Iraq on the morning of January 8, which was a retaliatory action following the killing of Tehran's top military commander Qasem Soleimani. Iran's military was on high alert following the firing of rockets on US bases and hence two land-to-air missiles were shot at the Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers, possibly confusing it with US fighter jets.

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