On the 6th, the International Civil Aviation Organization urged Iran to “accelerate the investigation” on the accidental attack on a Ukrainian Airlines passenger plane in January this year and release a final report as soon as possible. The Iranian representative to this UN agency responded that Iran will submit a report as soon as possible.
Salvatore Sharquitano, Chairman of the ICAO Council, said in a statement: “We have communicated with the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization on many occasions and urged Iran to accelerate the investigation of the accident in accordance with the provisions of the ICAO Annex 13. “
Annex 13 stipulates that the final report must be released within one year of the accident.
A Uzbek Airlines Boeing 737-800 passenger plane crashed shortly after taking off from Khomeini Airport in Tehran, the capital of Iran, on January 8, killing 176 people. Three days later, the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Air and Space Force admitted that the troops mistakenly regarded the passenger plane as a “hostile target” and fired missiles to shoot it down. The accidental attack on the Uzbekistan Airlines passenger plane was a tense confrontation between Iran and the United States, and the Revolutionary Guards were on high alert.
Iran’s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization Farhad Parvares said that he has submitted a full report to the Council on the progress of the investigation. The first draft of the final report has been completed and is being translated. The Iranian side complies with the provisions of Annex 13 and will submit reports to relevant countries “in the coming weeks.”
The relevant countries mentioned by Parvares refer to Ukraine, Canada and the United States. The downed airliner was designed and manufactured by the Boeing Company of the United States and operated by Uzbekistan Airlines.
The Iranian side has handed down the “black boxes” of the downed airliner, namely the airliner’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, to relevant French agencies for analysis. The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization issued a report in July stating that human error caused the Iranian side to accidentally hit the Ukrainian airliner.
Canada believes that the preliminary investigation report submitted by Iran failed to explain why the troops fired missiles on the passenger plane. Canadian Minister of Transport Mark Garno then put pressure on Iran.
According to ICAO regulations, relevant countries have 60 days to “comment” on the contents of the report before the final report is issued.
