Daily US Times, Tehran: Hundreds of protesters came down to the streets to show their anger at officials for telling ‘lies’ over the recent plane crash. Protesters called the authorities liars and demanded prosecutions.
A Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 176 people crashed in Tehran amid high tension between Iran and the US. The crash killed everyone on board.
Western media and leaders had been continuously speculating that an Iranian missile shot down the plane, but Iran denied the accusation for the first few days. On Saturday, Iran acknowledged their military ‘unintentionally’ shot down the plane and described it as a ‘disastrous mistake.’
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.”
Protests took place outside of at least two universities, and police fired tear gas to destroy it.
US President Donald Trump offered his support for the “inspiring” protests.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, hours after Iran fired missiles to two US bases in Iraq. After the Iranian attack, the country was bracing for further US retaliation and on high alert.
Sixty-three Canadians were in the flight PS752, en route to Kyiv. It is still unclear why so many Canadians were on the plane, but the airline offers cheap tickets to Canada from Ukraine.
Other victims included 82 Iranians and 11 Ukrainians as well as nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan, and Germany.
What happened in the protest?
The university students initially came to pay respect to the victims, but later it turned into an angry protest in the evening.
The semi-official Fars news agency carried a rare report about the unrest. Their report says up to 1,000 people who had chanted slogans against leaders and tore up pictures of Soleimani.
Students demanded prosecutions for those responsible for the downing the plane, and those they said had covered up the action.
They also demanded the resign of ”commander-in-chief”, who is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and “death to liars.”
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.