Bodies of Ukrainian victims of Iran plane crash returned home

KIEV – The bodies of the 11 Ukrainian citizens who died when a passenger plane was accidentally shot down by Iran this month were brought back to Ukraine yesterday in a solemn ceremony at Kiev airport.

All 176 on board the Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kiev were killed when the Boeing 737-800 was shot down on January 8, at a time when Iran was on high alert for a U.S. attack.

Most of those on board were Iranians or dual nationals. Canada had 57 citizens on board. Nine of the Ukrainian citizens were crew members.

With President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looking on, coffins draped in the Ukrainian flag were carried one by one from a Ukrainian military plane to a waiting hearse at Kiev’s Boryspil airport.

Soldiers held up flags to represent the different nationalities of those who died.

Relatives came to the airport carrying bunches of flowers. Airline staff, some in tears, were waiting on the tarmac.

Iran announced on Saturday it would send the black boxes to Ukraine to be decoded, but did not say when this would happen. Iranian representatives are expected to travel to Ukraine this coming week.

The plane disaster sparked unrest in Iran and added to international pressure on the country as it grapples with a longrunning dispute with the United States over its nuclear programme and its influence in the region that briefly erupted into open conflict this                                                                     month.

Meanwhile, Iran is trying to analyse the black boxes of a Ukrainian airliner that was shot down this month, the state IRNA news agency reported yesterday, denying a report that a decision had been taken to send the plane’s recorders to Ukraine.

Canada, which had 57 citizens on the plane in which 176 people were killed, and other nations who lost nationals have been calling on Iran for a thorough investigation and have said the flight data and voice recorders should be analysed abroad.

Ottawa has said the recorders, or black boxes, should be sent to France, after the military admitted shooting down Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 in error in the tense aftermath of tit-for-tat strikes by the United States and Iran.

“We are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran. Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country,” Hassan Rezaifar, a director in charge of accident investigations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, told IRNA.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency had said on Saturday the black boxes were being sent to Ukraine. It reported that Iran would not seek to read them at home.

Ukraine has previously said it expected Iran to hand over the black boxes to Ukraine.-Reuters.

You Might Also Like

Comments