DUBAI (UAE) – A governing panel of the UN’s aviation agency urged Iran on Friday to expedite a probe into the downing of a Ukrainian aircraft in January. According to an Iranian official, a final report on the crash would be out soon.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, members of the 36-nation panel urged Iran to finish the probe, ten months after a Ukraine International Airlines flight was downed by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing all 176 people on board.
“We have had several exchanges with the Iranian CAA in which we urged its authorities to expedite the accident investigation,” council president Salvatore Sciacchitano said during a meeting of the council.
The representative of Tehran to ICAO said he had prepared a complete report on the progress of the probe.
Farhad Parvaresh said a draft of the final report is being translated and it will be sent to all member nations within a couple of weeks, adding that Iran was adhering to global norms on air investigations known as Annex 13.
The rules also include a recommendation that the final report should be ready within a year. And in this case, there is time till January. However, high-profile probes take much longer indeed.
Despite the fact that the deadline is still two months away, nations like Canada are concerned about the probe and cite its lack of transparency.
On January 8, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard accidentally shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 after mistaking it for a missile at a time when tensions between the US and Iran were at an all-time high.
After an initial report on the contents of the black boxes, which were sent to France for scrutiny, Canada as well as the families of the victims are pressuring Iran for more answers to the incident.
A good number of the victims were Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Under ICAO regulations, Ukraine, where the aircraft was operating, and the United States, where it was designed and built, are part of any formal accident probe.