Iran, France Finalize Date to Read Black Box of Downed Ukrainian Plane

“The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) has done the necessary correspondence with the air accidents investigation and analysis office of France, and agreements have almost been finalized,” said Mohsen Baharvand, the deputy Iranian foreign minister for legal and international affairs.

“If everything goes like this and no unexpected event comes up, the black box will be taken to France by an aviation team from our country, and work to read and extract information from the black box will get underway on July, 20, 2020,” he said.

“A team of experts and technicians from the Islamic Republic of Iran will lead the research work and the reading of the information will be done under the guidance and supervision of the Iranian team,” he added.

“Of course, other countries which are, one way or another, connected to this tragic event can send a representative to France as an observer,” he added.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Tehran to Kiev operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA).

On 8 January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 operating the route was shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport. All 176 passengers and crew were killed. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) admitted their responsibility for downing the aircraft, saying its air defense units had mistaken the plane for a cruise missile and fired two surface-to-air missiles at it. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani described the accident as an “unforgivable mistake.”