Report: Multiple issues in Iran crash
Miscommunication led to jetliner being shot down
TEHRAN, Iran – A misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between troops and their commanders and a decision to fire without authorization all led to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner in January, killing all 176 people on board, a report says.
The report released late Saturday by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization comes months after the crash Jan. 8 near Tehran. Authorities initially denied responsibility, then changed course days later after Western nations presented extensive evidence that Iran shot down the plane.
The report may signal a new phase in the investigation into the crash. The aircraft’s black box flight recorder is due to be sent to Paris, where international investigators will be able to examine it. Public opinion remains low over Iran’s government as it faces crushing U.S. sanctions and vast domestic economic problems.
The shootdown happened the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq in response to an American drone strike that killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3.
The civil aviation report says a change in the “alertness level of Iran’s air defense” allowed air traffic to resume.
The report details the moments when the shootdown of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 could have been avoided.
The report says the surface-to-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 center, they misidentified the civilian flight as a threat and fired twice without getting approval from ranking officials, the report says.
“If each had not arisen, the aircraft would not have been targeted,” the report says.
Western intelligence officials and analysts said Iran shot down the aircraft with a Russian-made Tor system, known to NATO as the SA-15. In 2007, Iran took the delivery of 29 Tor M1 units from Russia under a contract worth about $700 million. The system is mounted on a tracked vehicle and carries a radar and a pack of eight missiles.
The report notes that the Ukrainian flight had done nothing out of the ordinary.
“At the time of firing the first missile, the aircraft was flying at a normal altitude and trajectory,” the report says.