Iran to send downed plane's black box to Ukraine

ANKARA

Iran will send the flight data recorder from a passenger plane downed by Iranian missiles on Jan. 8 to Ukraine, said Iran's Tasnim news agency on Saturday.

An Iranian official told Tasnim said that the "black box" from the Ukrainian International Airlines flight will be sent to Kiev at the request of Ukrainian authorities.

"American, Canadian and French experts will try to analyze the black box in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. If it cannot be analyzed there, it will be transferred to France," he said.

On Jan. 8, all 167 passengers and nine crew members died when the plane was brought down by Iranian missiles, shortly after takeoff from an airport in Tehran.

The victims were from six countries: Iran (82), Canada (57), Ukraine (11), Sweden (10), Afghanistan (4), and the U.K. (3).

Initially, Iran said it did not shoot down the plane, but later admitted “human error” culminated in the firing of the missiles. The announcement was followed by anti-regime demonstrations in Iran.

The disaster occurred a few hours after Iran fired missiles at Iraqi bases in retaliation for the U.S. killing on Jan. 3 of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani

Iran arrested several people it says were guilty of firing the missiles but experts say they are likely low-level personnel taking the blame to protect higher-ranking officials.

*Writing by Fahri Aksut