Ukraine calls Iran's final report on Ukrainian plane crash 'hypocritical'

In its final report on the downing of the Ukrainian plane, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization identified an IRGC air defense operator as the main perpetrator of the disaster. Ukraine’s foreign minister called the report “a hypocritical attempt to cover up the truth.”

On Wednesday, March 17, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba strongly criticized the final report of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization on the cause of the downing of the Ukrainian Airlines passenger plane in a Facebook message.

The report, Kolba wrote, is “a hypocritical attempt to hide the real reasons for the downing of the plane.” “We will not allow Iran to hide the truth, we will not allow [Iran] to shirk responsibility for this crime,” he stressed.

According to the Civil Aviation Organization, the IRGC air defense operator mistook the aircraft for an attacking flying object and fired at it twice.

The report states that recording devices were found at the accident, but the quick access recorder was not found.

The report goes on to say that the condition of these devices indicates that they were not exposed to fire in flight and likely suffered physical damage or were exposed to fire due to the severity of their impact with the ground.

On January 8, 2019, a Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down by two missiles from the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force shortly after taking off from Tehran International Airport bound for Kiev. All 176 people on board were killed in the incident.

Each of the two missiles weighed 167 kilograms and their warhead weighed 14 kilograms. The explosives used in the missile were of the "Composition B" type, which consisted of 60 percent RDX and 40 percent TNT.

This missile is equipped with a homing head with distance sensors. As it approached the aircraft, its homing head separated, and then the chamber containing the shrapnel exploded, causing about 2,500 to 3,000 tungsten alloy shrapnel to hit the aircraft at a speed of about 1,800 meters per second.

Republishing critical information

The Islamic Republic's final report repeats some of the information previously published about the causes of the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.

The release of this information in February sparked criticism from experts, victims' families and countries involved in the disaster.

Agnes Callamard, the Special Rapporteur at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, concluded after examining the causes and aspects of the downing of the Ukrainian plane that Tehran was lying about it.

“The ambiguities in Iran’s official reports serve to create maximum ambiguity and minimum clarity,” Ms. Callamard said.

According to this UN expert, the Islamic Republic has violated various aspects of human rights by shooting down the plane and creating confusion afterward.

Source: DW