France confirms it'll browse black boxes of Ukrainian jet shot by Iran
27 June, 2020
France said on Friday it would download the black boxes from a Ukrainian airliner shot straight down by a great Iranian missile found in January, easing a stand-off above where they must be read.
France’s BEA crash investigation firm said it had been acting at the demand of Iran, which remains responsible under global guidelines for conducting a formal automobile accident probe after acknowledging that the Boeing 737 was downed by its forces.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Jan. 8 by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people in what Tehran termed a “disastrous oversight” at the same time of heightened tensions with america.
Work on repairing and downloading the cockpit voice and data recorders will get started July 20, the BEA said.
Aviation authorities in Canada, 57 of whose citizens were killed, said they would send a staff to Paris to participate.
A spokesman for the U.S. National Transportation Safeness Board said the company is “still taking part in the investigation as the point out of manufacture through our U.S. accredited representative” but didn't say if officials would happen to be France to participate.
Iran would like Canada to re-establish diplomatic ties which were broken off in 2012 but Tehran did not set this as a good precondition for sending the recorders to France, a Canadian official said.
“It isn't realistic to anticipate us to entertain any sort of discussions about this anytime soon,” said the state, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the problem.
Canada’s priorities were a full probe into the crash and compensation for families of the victims, the state added.
Iran’s envoy to the US aviation company said this month that the country’s Air Accident Investigation Board had asked the BEA to learn the black boxes, though this is accompanied by conflicting ministerial statements.
Friday’s announcement suggests Western and Iranian officials will jointly witness the technical job, though one individual following the case didn't eliminate last-minute changes.
The BEA includes a history of assisting with sensitive probes when tensions are high between parties directly involved.
Source: