‘Working very hard to build trust’
He also confirmed that the U.S. gave Canada no heads up that it was planning a strike against Soleimani, something Trudeau said he “obviously” would have preferred.
The aftermath of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 continued to reverberate in Iran where protesters took to the streets for the third day. Two female protesters were reportedly shot and wounded in Tehran on Sunday night, while students protested Monday at Sharif university in Tehran, widely considered one of Iran’s top academic institutions.
Video showed students chanting slogans including “Clerics get lost!” outside universities in Isfahan and in Tehran, with riot police taking positions on the streets.
Images from the previous two days of protests showed wounded people being carried and pools of blood on the ground. Gunshots could be heard, although the police have denied opening fire.
Flight 752 took off from Tehran’s airport last Wednesday and was only minutes into the flight when it was hit by an Iranian air defence missile. All 176 people on board were killed.
Two Canadian law firms have already joined forces to promote filing civil suits over the tragedy with Paul Miller, a Toronto lawyer, saying families deserve compensation.
For days following the crash, Iranian authorities called the missile theory technically unsound and blamed a mechanical issue, but in a stunning admission Saturday, they admitted they had accidentally shot down the plane.
Air crash investigations are governed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which sets out who can participate in an investigation and how much access they receive. The home country of the airline or the plane’s manufacturer typically get more access than countries, like
in this case Canada, who had nationals on board.
Fox said Iran was allowing Canada more access to the investigation that it would normally be permitted under the rules. That includes the opportunity to view and examine the wreckage and the opportunity to take part in the examination of the data from the voice and data recorders, the aircraft’s black boxes.
Under ICAO rules, Canada would only legally have the right to visit the crash site and receive a final report.
Two more TSB investigators were on standby to travel to wherever the black box data was downloaded, which could happen outside Iran because of the technical complexity.
She said it remained to be seen if the cooperation would continue, but they believed everyone wants a full understanding of the tragedy.
“We are working very hard to build trust,” she said. “We all want answers and sharing information is a cornerstone of trust. The world deserves to know how and why events unfolded as they did.”
She said if they did not get the information they wanted from Iranian authorities they would make that clear.
“We will continue to advocate for a full explanation of what happened and why and we will speak up if we feel those answers aren’t coming,” she said.
In Canada, TSB investigators examine not just the technical factors around a crash, but broader circumstances like pilot training or fatigue.
Natacha Van Themsche, the TSB’s director of air investigations, said they wanted to look at some of those broader issues in the investigation.
“We do know what has happened. What we don’t know is why,” she said. “Why was the airspace not closed considering the tensions in the region.”
Fox pointed to a Dutch safety investigation of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was also hit by an air defence missile killing all on board in July 2014. The Dutch safety investigators recommended more be done to ensure that airspace was better protected for civilians in times of conflict.