Families of Ukrainian Flight Victims Urge Airlines: Do Not Fly Over Iranian Airspace
According to CBC News, families of those killed in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile attack on a Ukrainian flight in Iran have called on European and international airlines to refrain from negotiating with the Iranian government regarding continued flights through Iranian airspace, as long as Tehran has not fully cooperated regarding the missile attack on Flight 752 and has not punished those responsible.
Flight 752 of Ukraine International Airlines, which departed Tehran on January 8, 2020 with 176 passengers bound for Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, crashed minutes after takeoff due to a missile attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near Parand New City in Tehran Province, and all passengers, who were mostly of Iranian descent, were killed. This tragedy occurred hours after the Guard’s missile attack on the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq, which hosts American forces.
An association representing the families of victims submitted an online petition to German airline Lufthansa requesting that it refrain from using Iranian airspace. This request was made after Iranian news sites reported that European airlines, led by Lufthansa, have held extensive negotiations regarding the use of Iranian airspace.
According to CBC News, since the petition was launched on Sunday, May 11, more than 14,000 people have signed it.
Hamed Esmaeilion, spokesperson for the Family Association of Flight PS752 victims, who himself lost his wife and daughter in the tragedy, says that the Iranian government must be held accountable. The crashed Ukrainian flight carried 55 Canadian citizens.
Human Rights Watch previously accused Islamic Republic of Iran officials of “following past practice, evading responsibility and, instead of presenting details of investigations into the downing of the aircraft and those responsible for the fatal mistake, condemning those who had protested the attack that killed 176 people.”
According to the human rights organization, the Islamic Republic’s judicial system in late April 2020 sentenced at least 13 people to lengthy prison terms solely for peacefully protesting the Guard’s fatal attack on the Ukrainian aircraft and against the Iranian government’s initial denial of the attack on the passenger airliner.
Despite their initial denials, Iranian officials eventually announced, following reports from American intelligence agencies, that they had mistakenly targeted and shot down the Ukrainian aircraft with an anti-aircraft missile.
Source: Radio Farda
