Ukraine: Black boxes confirm interference with jet downed in Iran

The transcript from the black boxes from a Ukrainian jet accidentally shot down by Iran on January 8 confirms the fact of illegal interference with the plane, according to Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister.

Yevhenii Yenin’s remarks came on Friday, a day after an international team examining the flight recorders from the jet had completed a preliminary analysis of the data in France.

“Grateful to all partners who helped bring this moment closer. Black boxes from #PS752 were read out and deciphered successfully. The transcript confirmed the fact of illegal interference with the plane,” Yenin wrote on Twitter.

He also said Kyiv was expecting an Iranian delegation to visit Ukraine next week for talks.

Iranian forces say they downed the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 jet after mistaking it for a missile at a time of high tensions with the United States. All 176 people on board were killed.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this month that it was too soon to blame human error for the shooting down of the airliner and that many questions remained unanswered.

International probe

A team of investigators from the same countries as the victims of the plane crash met this week at France’s Bureau for Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), in Paris, to begin extracting the data.

“The download and preliminary data analysis was an important milestone in what must be a thorough and transparent safety investigation,” said Katy Fox, the chair of the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada, on Thursday.

“The work in Paris is finished, but the investigation is far from over. There are still many key questions that need to be answered,” she said in a statement.

“We have urged Iran to release factual information from the recorders as soon as possible,” Fox said, adding that Iran – which is leading the investigation – has not authorised the TSB to release details.