Iranian leaders denied Friday that their country’s missiles shot down a Ukrainian jet that crashed after taking off from Tehran this week after the U.S. and Canadian officials said intelligence showed that the Iranian military gunned down the plane.
All 176 people aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on a Boeing 737 were killed in the crash early Wednesday, just after Iran fired ballistic missiles on Iraqi bases housing U.S. soldiers in retaliation for the U.S.’ drone strike killing one of its top military leaders, Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Intelligence indicates that Iran’s military mistakenly fired on the Ukraine flight with a Russian-supplied anti-aircraft missile after its air-defense radar locked onto the passenger plane, a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly said Thursday.
Among the dead on the flight were 63 Canadians, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday a missile was the cause of the plane crash.
Here’s what we know now.
U.S., Canada says missile hit plane; Iran says ‘no’
Speaking with reporters Friday, Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s national aviation department, denied that any missile hit the passenger plane.
“What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane,” Abedzadeh said. “If they are really sure, they should come and show their findings to the world” in accordance with international standards.
Ali Rabiei, a spokesperson for the Iranian government, also accused the United States of spreading misinformation, CNN reported, citing Iranian state media.
“It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the U.S. government, and those supporting it knowingly and unknowingly, are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimizing them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” Rabiei said.
What about the jet’s ‘black box’?
Recovering data from the Boeing 737’s black box, the flight’s data recorder, could take more than a month and the entire investigation more than a year, said Hassan Rezaeifar, who is in charge of the Iranian investigation team.
Rezaeifar said the country may rely on international experts if it cannot obtain the data.
Canada is working with Ukrainian crash investigators, and Ukraine has been told it will have access to the data, Trudeau said.
Two flight recorders were “damaged” but readable, and recovered from the crash, Abedzadeh said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it received notification of the crash from Iran’s aviation department and that it would “evaluate its level of participation.”
U.S., Canada: Iranian military shot the jet down
It’s unclear if the Ukrainian airliner was mistaken as a threat by the Iranian military, but two SA-15 surface-to-air missiles brought the plane down in a fiery crash, the U.S. official said.
Trudeau, calling for a “full and credible” investigation Thursday, also said the missile firing may have been a mistake but that intelligence showed it was a missile that caused the crash.
“We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence,” Trudeau said. “The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.”
British officials also said it appears that Iran shot the jet down, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “the missile theory is not ruled out.” Three people from the United Kingdom and 11 from Ukraine were killed in the crash.
Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook, Chris Woodyard and John Bacon; The Associated Press
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/01/10/iran-plane-crash-not-caused-missile-iran-denying-us-canada/4429314002/
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