Iran Sends Ukrainian Jetliner’s Black Box to Paris

An Iranian deputy foreign minister says the flight recorder of a Ukrainian passenger plane shot down by mistake near Tehran in January has been taken to France for analysis.

Speaking to Etemad daily on Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Baharvand said the black box of the Ukrainian airplane was taken to Paris on Friday by the officials from Iran Civil Aviation Organization and an Iranian judge.

The process of analyzing the black box data will begin on Monday, the diplomat added.

He also expressed gratitude to the government of France for close cooperation with the Iranian delegation carrying the flight recorder.

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 accidentally shot down by the IRGC Air Defence shortly after take-off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. All the 176 passengers and crew were killed.

According to Iranian officials, 146 passengers used an Iranian passport to leave the country, 10 used an Afghan passport, five used a Canadian one, four a Swedish one, and two used Ukrainian passports.

The Ukrainian government, however, says there were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians (mostly Iranian-Canadian dual nationals), 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 7 Afghans, and 3 Britons on the plane.

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