By Aresu Eqbali in Tehran, Rory Jones in Dubai and Georgi Kantchev in Moscow
The Ukraine International Airlines flight that crashed after
takeoff from Tehran was on fire before it hit the ground, Iran's
aviation regulator said, as investigators remained open to the
possibility that the jet was hit by a projectile or an
explosion.
The Boeing Co. 737-800 single-aisle jet ascended to 8,000 feet
before disappearing from radar and crashing, killing all 176 people
on board, Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization
said, according to the country's state news agency.
The plane was aflame as its hit the ground and exploded, Mr.
Abedzadeh said, citing witnesses on the ground and a flight crew on
another aircraft at a higher altitude.
The cause of the fire is unclear but investigators are
considering a number of possible scenarios, including a strike by
an antiaircraft missile, a collision with a drone, and an explosion
of an engine or inside the aircraft, said Oleksiy Danilov, the head
of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, in a Facebook
post on Thursday.
He didn't mention any evidence pointing to such an attack.
A Ukrainian security official cautioned that these are
preliminary versions investigators are considering and no
conclusions have been reached. "Too many things are unclear at the
moment," the official said.
A spokesperson for Ukraine International Airlines declined to
comment on "hypotheses" and said the airline is awaiting the
official results of the investigation.
A spokesman for Iran's aviation regulator couldn't immediately
be reached for comment on Mr. Danilov's statement.
Earlier, Mohammad Eslami, Iran's minister of roads and urban
development, told news agency ISNA, "Rumors about the incident
being a terrorist attack, explosion or shooting at the plane...are
not true."
No radio messages were received from the pilot about unusual
conditions, Mr. Abedzadeh added in an initial report, according to
IRNA, the state news agency.
The investigation is expected to be one of the most politically
thorny probes ever. Tensions are high between the U.S. and Iran
over the killing of a top Iranian general. Boeing is already
dealing with the fallout from the grounding of its 737 MAX fleet
after two fatal crashes involving that jet.
Boeing said it is in contact with Ukraine International Airlines
and is ready to assist in any way. The U.S. State Department said
it is prepared to offer Ukraine all possible assistance and called
for cooperation in the investigation.
A team of 45 Ukrainian experts and officials arrived in Tehran
in the early hours of Thursday and will be involved in decoding the
plane's black boxes and identifying and repatriating bodies. The
team has already collected DNA samples from relatives of the
victims in Ukraine.
"The priority for Ukraine is to establish the causes of the
crash," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video
posted on his official Facebook page Thursday. "To do this, a
detailed and independent investigation will be carried out in
accordance with international law."
The crash came hours after Iran launched missile attacks on U.S.
troops at two Iraqi bases in retaliation for the killing of Iranian
Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The timing of those attacks had raised
questions about whether the Ukrainian airliner was downed by a
projectile.
In response to the Iranian strikes in Iraq, and ahead of the
crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would prohibit
U.S. carriers from traveling in airspace over Iran, Iraq and the
Persian Gulf. U.S. carriers don't fly to the Persian Gulf region,
but some flights skirt Iraq and Iran on the way to Asia.
Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways both departed Tehran's Imam
Khomeini International Airport after the Iranian strikes on
military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and before the Ukraine
International Airlines flight crashed, according to FlightRadar24,
a flight tracking site. Since the strikes in Iraq, carriers
including Air France, KLM and Qantas have said they would avoid
Iranian and Iraqi airspace.
Ukraine International Airlines said Wednesday that it hadn't
received any security alerts before the plane took off. It has
since ceased flights to Iran indefinitely.
Mr. Zelensky said other international planes were landing and
taking off at the Tehran airport in the morning of the crash and
only the U.S. had banned flights. He recommended that Ukrainian
citizens avoid the region and declared Thursday a day of national
mourning.
Mr. Zelensky said that he would speak by telephone with Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani to discuss the investigation and urged the
international community to join the probe.
It isn't clear how much access U.S. investigators will get to
the crash site. Hassan Rezaifar, director general of the ministry
of road and urban development for the bureau of accidents
investigation, said Thursday that the probe would be conducted to
international standards set by the Montreal-based International
Civil Aviation Organization.
That would indicate U.S. companies and entities could be
involved. But Mr. Abedzadeh, the head of Iran's aviation regulator,
also told the semiofficial Mehr News Agency on Wednesday that his
organization wouldn't provide Boeing or the U.S. access to the
black box.
Based on the ICAO convention, the home country of the airline
and the makers of the plane and its major systems are entitled to
appoint a representative to participate in crash probes.
CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Co.
and France's Safran SA that makes the engine for the 737-800, could
also seek access to the site. CRM said Wednesday it is saddened by
the incident and "any speculation regarding the cause is
premature."
Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@wsj.com and Georgi Kantchev at
georgi.kantchev@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 09, 2020 05:57 ET (10:57 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Boeing (NYSE:BA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Boeing (NYSE:BA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024