Iran
Officials inspect pieces of a Boeing 737 plane belonging to Ukrainian International Airlines after it crashed in Iran on 10 January 2020. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Ukraine, Canada and the families of those killed aboard a Ukraine Airlines flight downed over Tehran last year have blasted a final report into the crash released by Iran on Wednesday, which blamed the targeting of the plane on human error.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) issued the report more than a year after the downing of a plane in Iran, blaming the “air defense operator” for identifying the plane as a “hostile target,” downing the airliner with two missiles shortly after take-off.
A total of 176 people were killed when Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752, bound for Kiev, was shot down over Tehran on January 8, 2020. Iran initially denied shooting down the plane, before saying that it mistook the plane for a missile amid heightened tensions with the US following its assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in neighbouring Iraq.
Many onboard were residents or citizens of Canada returning from Iran after the winter holidays.
“The report makes no attempt to answer critical questions about what truly happened, it appears incomplete and has no hard facts or evidence,” the Canadian government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Canadian government also added that they will “soon disclose” the results of their own investigation.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the report was a “cynical attempt to hide true causes of the downing of our passenger aircraft.”
“We are forced to conclude that the investigation has been biased, presented proves [sic] are selective and conclusions are deceptive,” added Kuleba.
Iran committed multiple human rights violations in shooting down the plane and its aftermath, UN experts said in February.
An advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister said air travel will not be safe in the region until the “full truth” from the attack has been disclosed.
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims also blasted the report as “mere fabrications.”
“The families of victims cannot accept Iran’s claims that Flight PS752 was shot down due to a human error or that it was mistaken for a cruise missile. The available evidence as well as inconsistencies in Iran’s claims point to the opposite direction: that Flight PS752 was shot down intentionally,” it said.
Relatives of the victims have previously told Rudaw English of intimidation and harassment by Iranian authorities following the crash, including monitoring families visiting the crash site on the anniversary of the tragedy.
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