Ukrainian Investigative Commission: Iran is bulldozing the Ukrainian airliner's crash site, thorough investigation is impossible
Yuriy Butusov, journalist and editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian publication Censor.NET, wrote on Facebook, citing a source in the Ukraine’s State Investigative Commission, that the plane wreckage at the crash site is being bulldozed, and expressed doubt that Iran is interested in thorough investigation into what happened.
According to Butusov, at 12.00 pm, his source informed that the Ukrainian experts were at the crash site. Another group went to Iran's air traffic control center to inspect the radar footage.
"Is Iran interested in a thorough investigation? It's not clear. Wreckage of the aircraft is continued to be bulldozed and delivered to the assembly site. There is a crowd of different people in uniforms and without uniforms at the crash site, hundreds of people collect and carry away fragments of the plane, this process is not under any control," the source said.
The Ukrainian expert reports from Iran that the fragments of the plane are dumped indiscriminately in the pile, from which experts need to extract the pieces and lay out the remains of the hull.
He notes that when the site is eing bulldozed, it is impossible to ensure the integrity of parts which is important to get a full picture of the disaster. The specialist believes that it would be logical to photograph the crash site, identify some of the fragments, gradually carefully carry them out and lay them out.
"How to prove, for example, the nature of the explosion, if the fragments of the hull can already be damaged by a bulldozer? Iranians are literate and educated people, they can't help but understand that," he adds.
At the same time, the Ukrainian delegation has not yet been shown fragments of the liner’s forward fuselage and the cockpit. "There are no passenger seats. We do not understand, we have not been shown the cockpit, either because they are studying something themselves, or because it is completely destroyed by the explosion." the expert said.
In addition, no evidence has been provided at this time to support Iran's initial version of the technical causes of the tragedy.
As a result, according to him, the situation looks as follows.
There are no radar records showing the plane allegedly turning back towards the airport.
There are no recordings of pilots' conversations with dispatchers reporting technical problems.
There is no evidence of problems with the technical condition of the aircraft from the airport ground services.
At the same time, the collection of evidence by the Iranians is negligent, and this can make it difficult to find out the truth.
According to the Ukrainian expert, there are a number of questions to Iran that have not yet been answered. Which Russian-made Tor missile systems were near the airport that night and in what condition? Who and why was filming the moment of the explosion on board the plane and its fall? Was the attack on the airliner an accidental mistake, or a deliberate act of terror?
Earlier, Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat international investigative journalism group, said that collecting the wreckage by a bulldozer makes a real forensic investigation almost impossible.