Iran: investigation into the downed Ukrainian airliner is at final stages
Iran has almost completed its investigation into the crash of the Boeing-737 Ukraine International Airlines airliner, which killed 176 people, said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Baharvand, Alarabiya reports.
"The investigation is almost finished, and there is no ambiguity, we know what happened," the deputy minister said.
According to him, the analysis of the flight recorders of the Ukraine International Airlines aircraft is the only remaining stage of the investigation.
"We do not believe that the flight recorders contain any important information that will be useful for our investigation," Baharvand said.
Earlier, Iran said that it intends to transfer the "black boxes" of the downed Ukraine International Airlines aircraft to France.
A Ukraine International Airlines plane making a regular flight from Tehran to Kyiv crashed in Iran on the morning of January 8. 176 people from seven countries were killed, including 11 Ukrainians (nine crew members and two passengers).
Three days after the catastrophe, Iran admitted that it had inadvertently shot down the plane using a cruise missile. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has taken responsibility for the incident.