loading…
Analysis announcement black box this was announced by the head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, Touraj Dehghani-Zanganeh, on Sunday Tehran time. This is the first official report on the contents of voice recordings and cockpit data that was sent to France for reading last July.
Tehran says it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian plane in January at a time of extreme tensions with the United States. All of them on board, namely 176 people died in the tragedy. (Read: Iran attacks the Ukrainian aircraft: denies first, admits later …)
According to Zanganeh, the first missile hit the flight Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) 752 and followed by a second missile with a 25 second delay. He said that even though it was hit by two missiles, only 19 seconds of the delay had been recorded due to the damage from the first missile.
“Nineteen seconds after the first missile hit the plane, the voice of the pilot in the cockpit showed that the passenger was still alive … 25 seconds later the second missile hit the plane,” he was quoted as saying. Reuters, Monday (24/8/2020).
Therefore, he said, there was no analysis of the performance and effects of the second missile obtained from the plane’s black box.
Zanganeh said the plane’s flight crew – two pilots and an instructor who also traveled in the cockpit – tried to control the plane until the very end.
Canada’s Transport Safety Agency (TSB) confirmed it had received the flight recorder report.
“This is not a final safety investigative report but rather a brief summary of content extracted from the voice data recorder and cockpit flight last month in Paris and consistent with information TSB investigators received while attending the download of the recorder in France,” said TSB chairman Kathy Fox.
The investigation is far from over, as there are still many key questions that need to be answered.
The agency said it would continue to promote “thorough, transparent and credible” investigations.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shoot down flight Ukraine International Airlines with missiles surface-to-air (ground-to-air) on January 8, 2020, right after the plane took off from Tehran. Tehran initially denied having tampered with the passenger plane, but later admitted it was a “devastating mistake” by troops on high alert during the confrontation with the United States.
Iran have been in talks with Ukraine, Canada, and other countries whose citizens were victims of the plane tragedy. Tehran is also in talks with parties demanding a thorough investigation.
Iranian and Ukrainian officials have even held talks about compensation to the families of the victims. Another round of talks is scheduled for October.
The Iran investigation is being carried out under United Nations (UN) aviation rules which call for investigations aimed solely at preventing future accidents, apart from judicial proceedings. But the investigation is drawn into regional and domestic tensions.
“Data analysis from the black box should not be politicized,” said Zanganeh.
More than 20 people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years in Iran for participating in peaceful protests against the plane shooting incident.
Several Iranians took to Twitter on Sunday to show their anger, with at least one user tweeting; “They live for 19 seconds… a tragedy.”
(min)
–
