The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine, Yevhenii Yenin, stated in an extraordinary Twitter post on Friday, July 24 that there was evidence of “illegal interference” with Flight PS752 before it was shot down over Iran in January this year, leaving 176 people dead.
“Grateful to all partners who helped bring this moment closer,” he wrote. “Black boxes from PS752 were read out and deciphered successfully. The transcript confirmed the fact of illegal interference with the plane. We are waiting for the Iranian side for the first round of talks next week.”
Decryption of the black boxes was carried out in French laboratories with the participation experts from the United States, Canada, Britain and Ukraine. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry told IranWire: "Both boxes were successfully deciphered, despite the fact that they showed signs of serious external damage.
"The decipherment confirmed that the plane was in good condition [prior to the missile stroke]. The pilots did everything right. At the same time, the black boxes confirmed that the plane crashed as a result of an act of illegal external intervention, namely it was shot down by a missile.
"Deciphering black boxes is only one step in conducting a technical investigation. We hope that Iran will still conduct and complete the technical investigation in accordance with the best world standards."
“Illegal interference” is a very broad term that could be applied to one of many different aspects of the crash. It could simply refer to the fact that the plane was struck by two missiles, to interference with the black boxes themselves by Iran, or else to something in the flight recordings that indicates whether it really was “human error” on the Iranian side – or if the downing of the plane was deliberate.
Aleksey Jakubin, an associate professor at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute who has been following the case and is an expert on Ukrainian politics, noted that the question of whether the incident really was “human error” on the Iranian side – or if the missile fire was on an official order from the Iranian military - was still unanswered. “It is a very important question on the Ukrainian side," he told IranWire, "because a soldier making a mistake is one thing, but it being an official order would greatly impact the outcome of the future negotiations with Iran.”
France’s Bureau for Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) received the black boxes from Iran on July 18 after months of back and forth, most significantly between Ukraine and Iran. Iran had promised to hand over the black boxes months ago, but then postponed the handover due to the pandemic.
The black boxes – known less colloquially as the flight recorders – show two things about a flight. Firstly, they record the sounds of the cockpit, which could provide evidence in the event of a hijacking or slip-up by the pilot. Secondly, they show specific data about the flight, such as the altitude and orders from the cockpit to parts of the plane itself, such as the rudders and the steering.
Further Negotiations Next Week
Although Ukraine was grateful to finally receive the black boxes after months of frustration, now that it has finally happened the authorities are still not satisfied. On Monday, two days after the delivery of the black boxes, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that read: “This is long overdue and is only a step towards completing the safety investigation. We reiterate our demand for Iran to conduct a full, transparent, and independent flight safety investigation in accordance with international standards."
The ministry spokesperson told IranWire that an Iranian delegation is expected to arrive in Ukraine next week for further talks. Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba recently reiterated Ukraine's position, calling for Iran to acknowledge its international legal responsibility for the crash, carry out an investigation in line with the stipulations of the Chicago Convention, and conduct an "impartial and independent" criminal investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
No settlement has yet been reached between the government of Iran and the governments who had citizens aboard the flight, and appropriate compensation has not yet been agreed. Reparations aren especially sore thumb in these discussions. Iran has offered US$80,000 to each family hit by this tragedy – an amount of money nowhere near what the Ukrainians are seeking for the victims, though Ukraine has not yet stated an exact sum due to the ongoing negotiations. "Our priority is to establish justice for all victims of the disaster and their loved ones," the ministry spokesperson added.
IranWire has written a timeline with the most defining events in the PS752 tragedy, which can be read here. PS752 took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport at around 6 o’clock in the morning on January 8. But shortly after the plane crashed in a park not far from the Iranian capital. Everyone onboard was killed: 82 Iranian citizens, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedish citizens, seven Afghan citizens, three Britons and three German citizens.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet responded to a request for comment.
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