Iran: Misaligned radar responsible for downing of jetliner

Iranian investigators blamed the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran earlier this year on the misalignment of an air defense unit’s radar system in a report issued late Saturday.

All passengers and crew members, 176 people, aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 were killed in the Jan. 8 crash, which sparked widespread public anger. Iranian authorities took days to admit that its forces had fired an antiaircraft missile at the Boeing 737800 shortly after its takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Most of the dead were Iranian; 85 had citizenship or permanent residence in Canada. Many were students; some were headed to Canada to resume their studies after the holiday break. In the days after the strike, Iranian campuses erupted in protests as grief-stricken and angry youths called for justice.

Canadian officials pressed Sunday for more answers.

“Immediate action is required from the Iranian regime to ensure that they conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation in accordance with international standards, so that all those responsible are held accountable,” said Sylvain Leclerc, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada.

The report from Iran’s civil aviation authority built on earlier findings that blamed the human error of a missile operator who had 10 seconds to decide whether the plane was a threat.

The downing occurred at a time when regional tensions were boiling. A U.S. drone strike killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, and Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The Iranian armed forces were then bracing for a counterstrike.

The civil aviation authority claims in the new report that the radar that the missile operator was monitoring had been misaligned, causing it to misinterpret the location of the passenger jet and indicate instead that there might be a second, unidentified, aircraft in the air.

“A failure occurred due to a human error in following the procedure” for aligning the radar, causing a “107-degree error” in the system, the authority reported. It then detailed, minute by minute, the chain of events that led to the plane’s targeting. The missile operator contacted higher command but received no response, the authority said. Twenty seconds later, the first of two missiles was fired. Video footage showed the second appearing to hit the aircraft. The plane erupted in a fireball before crashing on farmland on the outskirts of Tehran.

The report did not include the names of any individuals deemed responsible.