Iranian delegation to visit Kiev on Ukrainian plane crash

Baharvand said as the country in which the tragic accident happened, Iran has done its best based on international and domestic regulations and also the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation to tackle the issue.

When the accident happened, he added, Iran invited those countries whose national were killed in the crash to participate in investigations and even hosted big delegations from all countries especially Canada and Ukraine.

Iran spared no efforts to address these delegations' demands, he said, adding that they were permitted to test parts of the plane in the accident site.

At first, Ukraine claimed it was capable of decoding the recorder of the plane but then it came out that it may not have enough equipment, Baharvand said.

Iranian representative in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held meetings with these companies and Iran Civil Aviation Organization was in touch with other countries through video conference but the outbreak of coronavirus caused much delay in the process, he noted.

Iran invited other countries but because of the COVID19 outbreak they declined to come so Tehran had to send the black boxes to France, the Iranian diplomat said.

The French government transmitted information of black boxes to Paris and delivered them to the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), Baharvand reiterated.

In order to be certain about the standard of decoding the plane's recorder, representatives from Canada and the US as manufacturers of the plane as well as Ukraine, Sweden and the UK attended the process in Paris, the diplomat said, while highlighting Iran's major role in this process.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Baharvand said that an Iranian delegation from Iran Civil Aviation Organization, Vice Presidency of Iran for Legal Affairs and Iran's Judiciary headed by himself is to visit Ukraine.

The Iranian delegation is to discuss laws and regulations in Ukraine, he said.

He went on to stress that no suggestion has yet been made with regard to the compensation for the victims of the plane crash.

Baharvand also noted that six people had been charged in relation to the incident, three of whom were imprisoned with the rest released on bail.

He said he was confident about the due course of judicial and criminal investigations underway in this connection and said these people will be tried soon.

A Ukrainian Boeing 737 passenger plane was accidentally shot down by an Iranian rocket near Tehran on January 8, 2020.

It happened after the US terrorist attack against the motorcade of General Qasem Soleimani, late Commander of Qods forces, and his companions at Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.

Iran reciprocated the US terrorist operation by hitting the US Ain al-Assad airbase in Iraq

The commander of Aerospace Force of the IRGC Brigadier-General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh admitted that human error was responsible for the air tragedy.

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