Daily US Times, Tehran: Iran acknowledged that it’s military “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian jetliner. The country describes it as a ”disastrous mistake.”
The plane crash killed all 176 people on board.
In a statement on Saturday morning, Iran acknowledged the shot down as unententional ‘human error’ for the incident. The acknowledgment statement came just a day after Iran denied the missile hit down the Ukrainian plane.
In a tweet, President Hassan Rouhani said his country “deeply regrets this disastrous mistake.” He conveyed his condolences, thoughts, and prayers to all the mourning families adding that “investigations continue to identify and prosecute this great tragedy and unforgivable mistake.”
Al Jazeera reported that authorities acknowledged that the country’s air defense system “mistakenly” shot the plane down.
After the incident took place, western leaders and media speculated that Iranian surface-to-air missile hit the plane down. But Iran has been denying the claim and accusing the US and its allies of telling lies.
Yesterday, Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s civil aviation department, said: “What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane.”
Who are the victims?
Sixty-three of the plane’s passengers were Canadian. Other victims included 82 Iranians and 11 Ukrainians as well as nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan, and Germany.
It is still unclear why so many Canadian passengers were in that plane. But the airline offers cheap flight to Canada from Kiev.
What the Airline says?
The Ukrainian International Airline said the crash that took place on Wednesday in Tehran was unlikely due to “error”. The crash killed all 176 people on board.
Vice President of the airline company said in a statement that the crews of the flight were highly experienced.
“Tehran airport is anything but a simple one. Therefore, for several years UIA has been using this airport to conduct training on Boeing 737 aircraft aimed at evaluating pilots’ proficiency and ability to act in emergency cases.”
“According to our records, the aircraft ascended as high as 2,400 meters. Given the crew’s experience, error probability is minimal. We do not even consider such a chance”, his statement adds.
The Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 crashed just after takeoff from Tehran’s airport. Flight data shows it was climbing normally before reaching nearly 2,400m. After reaching that height, the plane simply disappears from radar.