Ukraine: Many Questions Remain About Commercial Aircraft Downing
Ukraine’s foreign minister said it is still impossible to call “human error” the cause of the commercial aircraft downing. The aircraft’s black box has not yet been sent to France for decryption. There is also disagreement over the amount of compensation to be paid to the families of the victims.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said on Tuesday, July 24 (July 14) that there are many questions remaining regarding the commercial aircraft of his country’s airlines that was shot down in Iran, and it is still impossible to consider “human error” as the cause of the aircraft downing, as Iran claims.
According to Reuters report, Ukraine’s foreign minister said that many questions about this incident remain unanswered. He stated: “We have many questions that require substantiated, impartial, and objective answers so that we can know what really happened.”
The air defense of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukrainian aircraft flight 752 with two surface-to-air missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport on January 8.
The Islamic Republic initially denied shooting down the aircraft, but later admitted that under conditions of full readiness of the air defense system to counter a possible U.S. attack, a “catastrophic error” had occurred.
Tehran’s military prosecutor recently provided a new clarification saying that the Ukrainian aircraft was shot down due to “radar system error” and “lack of coordination between the defense system operator and the coordination center.”
All 176 passengers on flight 752 were killed. Most of the passengers were Iranian or of Iranian descent. Citizens from Sweden, Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, and Ukraine were also among the passengers.
The Islamic Republic refused to hand over the aircraft’s black box, which could clarify the circumstances of its downing. Following pressure and pursuit by foreign countries, Iran last month announced that it would send the black box of the downed aircraft to France so that experts from the United States, Canada, France, Britain, and Ukraine could decrypt its data.
The black box has not yet been delivered to France.
Iran’s Agreement to Pay Compensation
Ukraine’s foreign minister further stated that in the coming weeks, a delegation from Iran is expected to travel to this country to negotiate payment of compensation to the families of the crash victims.
According to some reports, the Islamic Republic has set aside approximately 80,000 dollars in compensation for each victim of the aircraft downing.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, said last February that his country does not agree with the amount that Iran is willing to pay as compensation to the families of those killed in the downing of his country’s commercial aircraft, considers it insufficient, and is demanding higher compensation.
