Report on shooting down of Ukraine jet

A misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between troops and their commanders and a decision to fire without authorisation all led to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner in January, according to a new report.

Released late on Saturday by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, it comes months after the January 8 crash near Tehran that killed all 176 people on board.

Authorities had initially denied responsibility, only changing course days later after Western nations presented extensive evidence that Iran had shot down the plane.

The report may signal a new phase in the investigation into the crash as the aircraft’s black box flight recorder is due to be sent to Paris, where international investigators will finally be able to examine it.

The incident happened the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting US soldiers in Iraq, its response to the American drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3. At the time, Iranian troops were bracing for a US counterstrike and appear to have mistaken the plane for a missile.

The civil aviation report does not acknowledge that, only saying a change in the “alertness level of Iran’s air defence” allowed previously scheduled air traffic to resume.

The report detailed a series of moments when the taking down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 could have been avoided.

The report said the surfaceto-air missile battery that targeted the Boeing 737-800 had been relocated and was not properly reoriented. Those manning the missile battery could not communicate with their command centre, they misidentified the civilian flight as a threat and opened fire twice without getting approval from ranking officials, the report said.

Picture: Shutterstock. Rescue workers in January.