Iran agrees to hand over to Kyiv black boxes from downed Ukrainian airliner
Iran has agreed to hand over to the Ukrainian side "black boxes” from the downed passenger plane of the Ukraine International Airlines near Tehran, announced Ukraine's Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko on Twitter.
According to him, at the end of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council in Montreal, Iranian representative Farhad Parvaresh announced Tehran's consent to hand over the flight recorders.
"Iran agrees to send black boxes to Ukraine, with the subsequent transfer to France in case additional examination is needed," Shevchenko quoted the Iranian official as saying.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that it is impossible to decipher the flight recorders of the downed Ukrainian plane without the help of Western experts.
A Ukraine International Airlines plane making a regular flight from Tehran to Kyiv crashed in Iran on the morning of January 8. 176 people from seven countries were killed, including 11 Ukrainians (nine crew members and two passengers).
Three days after the catastrophe, Iran admitted that it had inadvertently shot down the plane using a cruise missile. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has taken responsibility for the incident.