Iran's Minister of Transportation: Black box of Flight 752 will be sent to Ukraine

Mohammad Eslami, Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development, said on Wednesday, June 19, that the black box of Flight 752 will first be sent to Ukraine. If they are unable to do so, the black box will likely be sent to France for re-reading.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by IRGC air defenses near Tehran on the morning of January 8, 2019, killing 176 people on board. After several days of cover-up and denial of reports, officials in the Islamic Republic finally announced that "human error" had caused the disaster.

Iran's Minister of Transportation says that Ukraine did not previously have the necessary facilities to read the black box, but "it seems that the Americans" have provided them with the necessary equipment and promised cooperation with the presence of a factory representative in Ukraine.

Mohammad Eslami said: "The necessary coordination in this regard is such that the black box will be read in the presence of ICAO representatives in Ukraine, and if the conditions are not met, then it will be read unanimously in France, and some countries are also considering sending it directly to France in this regard."

He also stressed, in response to the Canadian Prime Minister's concern about the failure to send the Ukrainian black box, "Regarding the delay in reading the black box of the Ukrainian plane, there is nothing related to the coronavirus outbreak, and the Iranian delegation and the accident committee are awaiting final coordination between the groups so that the black box can be read at the earliest opportunity."

More than five months after the crash of Flight 752, its black box has still not been retrieved, causing a rift between Iran and the international community.

Last week, the Islamic Republic's representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Rooz, said that the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization had recently submitted this request to the French Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA).

However, the French agency told Reuters that it had not officially received any requests and that discussions with Iran and other countries involved were still ongoing.

Reuters also previously reported, citing some sources, that the Islamic Republic had told ICAO that it would send the black boxes to the French agency if Canada and Ukraine agreed.

Source: Radio Farda