Iran's Civil Aviation Organization representatives arrive in Ukraine
KYIV. Jan 23 (Interfax) - A delegation from the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, led by the head of the inquiry into the crash of a Ukrainian Boeing near Tehran, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday, January 21, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) stated on its web page on Thursday.
The team of experts has been joined by specialists from Canada and France.
"On January 22, the experts were able to familiarize themselves with the technical facilities for reading information from the flight recorders, so-called black boxes, at the Kyiv scientific research institute of forensic analysis, a National Aviation University laboratory, and the Disc Systems scientific production enterprise," the statement said.
On the same day, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov and Iranian Ambassador Manuchehr Moradi discussed further cooperation in the air crash inquiry. The meeting was attended by Ukrainian Ambassador to Iran Serhiy Burdiliak.
On Thursday, January 23, Danilov met the head of the Iranian crash inquiry to discuss the experts' work and said that it was particularly important for Ukraine to receive the black boxes.
The Iranian official, in turn, said that a final decision on further work with the flight recorders will be made after the delegation has reported the results of its visit to Ukraine to the Iranian leadership and in accordance with Article 26 of the Chicago Convention and Annex 13 thereto.
"The Ukrainian NSDC secretary noted Ukraine's full technical preparedness to ensure a complete set of measures necessary for investigating the black boxes," the statement said.
The UIA Boeing 737-800 performing flight PS752 from Tehran to Kyiv crashed in the vicinity of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport in the early morning hours of January 8, soon after takeoff. None of the 167 passengers and nine crewmembers aboard survived the crash. The casualties included 11 citizens of Ukraine, including the nine crewmembers, 82 Iranian citizens, 63 Canadians, ten Swedish citizens, four citizens of Afghanistan, three Germans, and three UK citizens.
The Iranian authorities said on January 11 that the national army had downed the Boeing by mistake.