Ukraine Plane Crash: Cyber Attack Ruled Out, Human Error Confirmed

A senior Iranian lawmaker says human error was proved to be the cause of the recent Ukrainian plane crash and the possibility of a cyberattack has been ruled out.

Photo by Borna Qassemi, ISNA

The remarks were made by Chairman of the National Security Commission of the Iranian Parliament, Mojtaba Zonnour, who cited the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces’ examinations and accounts.

“The defence system had not been given orders to target and shoot, and even if we assume that the defence system and the operator involved were disconnected from the headquarters, the person should have not … fired at will,” Zonnour said.

Even “the disconnection between the operator and the system, and the headquarters has not been proved yet,” he added. “So, the incident is accounted for by human error, and it was the operator who committed the error.”

The possibility of the disruption of Iran air defence system by a possible cyberattack came up after the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps shot down a Ukrainian airliner in Tehran on 8 January.

The IRGC accepted responsibility for the downing of the flight after three days, but some officials had raised the possibility that it might have been a case of cyberattack carried out by the US, though he had considered it a slim possibility.

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