Black box backtrack

Iran official contradicts earlier report over Ukrainian jetliner

THE Iranian official leading the investigation into the Ukrainian jetliner that was accidentally shot down by the Revolutionary Guard has appeared to backtrack on plans to send the flight recorders abroad for analysis.

A day after saying the black boxes would be sent to Kiev, Hassan Rezaeifar was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency as saying: “The flight recorders from the Ukrainian Boeing are in Iranian hands and we have no plans to send them out.”

He said Iran was working to recover the data and cabin recordings, and that it may send the flight recorders to Ukraine or France. “But as of yet, we have made no decision.”

The same official was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Saturday as saying the recorders would be sent to Ukraine, where French, American and Canadian experts would help analyse them.

Iranian officials previously said the black boxes were damaged but usable.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting accounts. Iran may be hesitant to turn over the recorders for fear that more details will come to light from the crash, including the harrowing 20 seconds between when the first and second surface-to-air missiles hit the plane

The government of Canada, which had 63 citizens on the plane, said that the boxes should be sent quickly for analysis by experts in either France or Ukraine.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who met with

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday in Oman, said in a note to his Iranian counterpart that “Iran has a path to choose”.

“When you say that you take full responsibility, that comes with consequences,” Mr Champagne wrote.

Iran’s air defences shot the plane down soon after it took off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board.