A team of Ukrainian experts are in Tehran, Iran to investigate the crash site and remains of the UIA Boeing 737-800 airliner.
Ukraine National Security Advisor Alexei Danilov in an interview with a local news site, Censor Net, said that :
“According to the decision of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the State Commission for Investigation of the Boeing Catastrophe arrived at Tehran tonight. The group consists of 45 people, representing 12 ministries and agencies.
A meeting is currently underway with the participation of representatives of the authorities of Iran, including Iran’s ICAO, an international civil aviation organization. Different versions of a sudden plane crash are studied, among the main ones:
- the destruction of the aircraft by an anti-aircraft missile (SAM), in particular, “Tor”, as information on the detection of fragments of a Russian missile near the crash site has already appeared on the Internet;
- collision with a UAV or other flying object;
- destruction and explosion of the engine for technical reasons;
- explosion inside the plane as a result of a terrorist attack
The team includes experts involved in an international investigation into the downing of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MN-17 on July 17, 2014 in the airspace of Ukraine, as well as in the examination of fragments of the Russian anti-aircraft missile “Buk” that allegedly shot down a Malaysian aircraft.
“We are currently conducting diplomatic talks with the Iranian side, there is every reason to hope for cooperation on all issues, including the participation of our commission in deciphering the “black boxes” of our aircraft. The investigation into the deaths of Ukrainian citizens is under the personal control of the President of Ukraine (Zelensky), and we will immediately inform the Ukrainian society and the media of any data that may be found.”
The UIA Boeing 737-800 aircraft scheduled on the Tehran-Kiev route crashed at approximately 6 AM Tehran time on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, after takeoff from Tehran airport.
