Reading information of the black box of the Ukrainian plane will be completed within the next two to three days, he said, adding, “an Iranian delegation will leave Tehran for Kiev on July 29-30 to negotiate and consult with the Ukrainian side about the incident.”
Speaking in an interview with IRNA on Tue., he pointed to decoding information of black box of the Ukrainian plane in France’s capital Paris, and added, “as a country where this regrettable incident took place, we have done what was our duty in accordance with international law as well as Iranian law, and we have proceeded in accordance with the Chicago Convention. At the time of the plane crash, we invited countries whose nationals had lost their lives to participate in the investigation process, in which we hosted large delegations from all countries, especially from Ukraine and Canada.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to the spread of coronavirus global pandemic and added, “outbreak of COVID-19 caused delay in decoding information of black box of the Ukrainian plane.”
In this regard, Iranian representatives in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had meetings with these companies. Also, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) was always in touch with other countries through video conferencing, he said, adding, “we immediately invited them to start reading information of the black box which coincided with the spread of the corona.”
The Tehran-Kiev flight was unintentionally shot down by an air defense unit shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 passengers and crew members on board.
The incident came as Iranian air defenses were at the highest level of alert following the country’s missile attacks against US bases in Iraq, which came in retaliation for Washington’s assassination of senior Iranian Commander Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani.
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