On Wednesday, Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran‘s civil aviation organization, said the country would not give the black box from an aircraft that crashed, killing everyone on board, to Boeing or the United States.
He added that the Ukraine International Airlines airliner’s black box, which contains flight data recorders, would be analyzed in the country where the accident took place in compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules.
Flight PS752 crashed minutes after takeoff and killed all 176 people on board, including 63 Canadians. Officials said it happened early Wednesday morning, hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two Iraqi bases housing U.S. soldiers, but both Ukrainian and Iranian officials said a mechanical issue is likely what caused the Boeing 737-800 aircraft to crash.
Only speaking briefly about the crash, Abedzadeh told Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency that the pilot did not communicate any problems to air traffic control but said it was still too early to tell what caused the crash.
“The cause of the accident will not be discovered or announced until the black box is analyzed,” he said.
Abedzadeh said Ukrainian investigators would be involved in the process but ruled out involving the U.S. in the investigation.
“We will not give the black box to the manufacturer [Boeing] or America,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement that search-and-rescue teams would be involved in the “investigation, identification and repatriation of the bodies of Ukrainians” killed in the crash.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday offered his condolences to those affected by the crash in a statement and said Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne had been in touch with the government of Ukraine.
“Our government will continue to work closely with its international partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated and that Canadians’ questions are answered,” said Trudeau.
Can Iran legally refuse to hand over the black box?
In a word, yes.
ICAO’s set of safety initiatives asserts that the investigation into an air crash will be held where it happened, referred to as “the state of occurrence.”
When the plane crashed in Tehran, Iran became the state of occurrence.
In accordance with ICAO rules, Iran is required to produce a preliminary report stating the basic facts within 30 days.
© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
