By Aresu Eqbali in Tehran and Rory Jones in Dubai
Iran said the Ukrainian airliner that crashed outside of an
airport in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, was shot down
unintentionally by its armed forces.
Iranian officials had initially denied claims by Western
officials that the Boeing Co. 737-800 jet was downed by a missile
system fired by Iran, possibly by mistake.
The single-aisle jet crashed Wednesday four hours after Iran had
launched military strikes against the U.S. in Iraq in retaliation
for the killing of a top general, and the Middle Eastern state was
on high alert for a potential U.S. response.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane approached a sensitive
military base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and
was downed due to "human error," Iran's general staff of the armed
forces said in a statement on state television early Saturday local
time.
The armed forces detected greater U.S. air activity and U.S.
warplanes on its radar after the Iranian strikes on American forces
in Iraq, the statement said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted that the downing was a
"great tragedy & unforgivable mistake."
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the error was caused
by "U.S. adventurism" in the Middle East. "Our profound regrets,
apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all
victims, and to other affected nations," he tweeted.
The airline and a spokeswoman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the Iranian strikes, President Trump has said the U.S.
didn't plan to respond to Iran and that Iranian forces appeared to
be standing down from further conflict with American forces.
The downing of the jet, which killed a number of Iranians, is
likely to place further pressure on Iran's leadership, already
challenged by U.S. sanctions that have prompted an economic crisis
and widespread public protest.
Until Saturday, Iranian officials had repeatedly denied that the
jet was shot down by its armed forces, despite claims by U.S., U.K.
and Canadian officials that it crashed after being hit by
missiles.
Iranian investigators had said the plane likely crashed due to a
technical error and the pilot was attempting to return to Tehran's
main international airport when it hit the ground.
On Saturday, Iranian investigators said they would send the
so-called black-box data to France for analysis after determining
that Iran doesn't have the necessary technology to assess the
data.
Hassan Rezaifar, the head of the accident investigation bureau
at Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, said Iranian investigators
asked Canada, France and the U.S. to send equipment to Iran, but
the countries didn't accepted the proposal.
Instead, Iran asked five countries--Ukraine, Sweden, Britain,
Canada and the U.S.--whether the data could be downloaded in a
credible and neutral laboratory and all five agreed to analyze the
black boxes in France, Mr. Rezaifar said, according to state news
agency IRNA. He added that these decisions were made before the
statement from Iran's armed forces.
"Now that the reason of the incident has been identified, the
decision should be made if it is needed to download the black box
information or not," he told the state news agency. "The point is
that the black box will not be opened in Iran."
Tehran already had given Ukrainian investigators access to the
black-box data and cockpit voice recorders on Friday. A team of 45
Ukrainian experts and officials is on the ground in Tehran,
Ukrainian officials said.
Iranian officials also have invited investigators from Boeing,
the U.S., Ukraine, France and Canada to probe the causes of
Wednesday's crash, which killed a number of Canadians.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. entity tasked
with transport-accident investigations, said it is monitoring the
situation and evaluating its level of participation.
Boeing has started preparing the necessary paperwork and has
been in touch with both the State and Commerce departments, The
Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
In the normal course of an investigation, some level of
participation would also be expected from the Federal Aviation
Administration and General Electric Co., which made the plane's
engines with a French joint-venture partner.
Early Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he
expects "full cooperation" from Iranian authorities to ensure
Canadian officials take part in an investigation into why the plane
was shot down. The country said it lost 57 citizens in the crash,
down from an earlier estimate of 63.
"Our focus remains closure, accountability, transparency, and
justice for the families and loved ones of the victims," Mr.
Trudeau said in a statement.
U.S. industry and government officials on Friday said the
Iranians have the ability to conduct routine downloads of black-box
recorders, but are skeptical they have the technical expertise and
experience to extract data from damaged devices.
The crash comes after Iran has undergone a convulsive few
months. At least 59 people died this week in a stampede at a
funeral march for Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the military
commander killed by a U.S. strike.
In November, hundreds of demonstrators were killed by security
forces when they rose up across the country in protest against
government austerity measures, prompted partly by American
sanctions. The security response was the deadliest in decades.
The Ukrainian jet isn't the first time tensions between the U.S.
and Iran have led to an aviation tragedy. In 1988, the U.S. Navy's
Vincennes warship downed Iran Air Flight 655 with an air-defense
missile.
U.S. officials said they mistook the Airbus SE A300 airliner for
a warplane they feared would attack the ship. All 290 people,
mostly Iranian, on the plane died, prompting an outpouring of
national grief in Iran.
Georgi Kantchev in Kyiv and Paul Vieira in Ottawa contributed to
this article.
Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2020 01:44 ET (06:44 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