Following recovery and analysis of a downed Ukrainian Boeing 737 aircraft, the Iranian Government has said the black boxes from downed Ukraine jet show missiles hit 25 seconds apart.
The Findings in Detail
Analysis from the black boxes of a downed Ukrainian passenger plane shows it was hit by two missiles 25 seconds apart and that passengers were still alive for some time after the impact of the first blast, Iran said in a statement this Sunday (23 August)
The announcement, which was made by the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, marks the first official report on the contents of the cockpit voice and data recordings, which were sent to France for reading in July this year. Tehran has said it accidentally shot down the Ukraine airliner in January at a time of extreme tensions with the United States.
The aircraft had been operating flight PS752 to Kiev at a time when Iranian air defences were on high alert. Iranian investigators have already indicated that an alignment error with a ground-based surveillance system incorrectly suggested the aircraft was flying an unexpected track and was interpreted as hostile. All 176 people aboard the plane were killed by the incident.
It is now believed that the second missile hit the aircraft around 25 seconds after the first, but only 19 seconds of that gap was captured on the recordings because of damage sustained by the aircraft from the first missile – According to Touraj Dehghani-Zanganeh in a statement to state television:
“Nineteen seconds after the first missile hit the plane, the voices of pilots inside the cockpit indicated that the passengers were alive … 25 seconds later the second missile hit the plane,” “Therefore, no analysis of the performance and effects of the second missile was obtained from the aircraft’s black box.”
International Backlash
The incident has come under wide-criticism from the international community. Marc Garneau, Canad’s Transport Minister, says the government has received a copy of the read-out report from the Iranian Civl Aviation Organisation, but even this contained “limited and selected information”
Additionally, Garneau and the Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne are insisting that the Iranian authorities provide answers as to why the airspace was open at a time of heightened military alert and why the missiles were ever launched without proper checks.
Travel Radar awaits the full report on the incident.
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