On March 19th 2021, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement saying,
"First and foremost, we will continue to be there to support the families and fulfil our promise to find out exactly what went wrong, how this terrible tragedy could happen and ensure that Iran wields full responsibility for its role in the loss of so many lives,"
As of now, Ukraine and Canada are preparing for a new stage of negotiations with Iran on the January 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines’ Flight PS752.
Earlier, On 18th march 21, Transportation safety board of Canada released it's comments on the Iran’s final safety investigation report into the downing of PS752 (On March 17, 2021).
- What was the sequence of events, including the technical, human and organizational factors, that led to the missiles being fired and ultimately the downing of PS752 ?
- What was the basis for the decision to keep Iran’s airspace open during a period of heightened military alert after Iran had launched missiles into Iraq ? and
- Why did civilian airlines continue to operate in Iran’s airspace in the hours following Iran’s launch of missiles into Iraq?
In closing, I know much concern has been expressed about the international protocols that govern the conduct of these very unique types of safety investigations involving military activities, specifically the issue of the state of occurrence investigating itself. Additionally, when a state’s accident investigation agency is not independent of the state aviation authority as required by ICAO, such as Iran’s AAIB, it can affect the credibility of the final report findings and the uptake of resulting recommendations intended to prevent future accidents.
On fresh negotiations, it is learnt that ,the relevant issue was discussed during a phone talk between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Canadian counterpart, Mark Garneau, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service, as cited by Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News.
“The sides have coordinated further steps to form a common position for the next stage of negotiations with Iran on the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752. The officials have confirmed the invariable priority of achieving justice for the victims and their relatives, ensuring the inevitability of punishment for those responsible for this tragedy.”
Till date, Iran has maintained the statement that, the Ukrainian aircraft had been shot down as a result of an unintentional “human error” by an air defense unit, and promised to bring those responsible to justice.
Kyiv-bound Boeing B737 passenger jet flight PS752, operated by UIA, crashed in Iran shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport. All 176 people on board, including 11 Ukrainian nationals were killed. Among the victims were also citizens of Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The flight recorders were delivered to Paris and decrypted. It was reported that data from the black boxes had confirmed external interference with the aircraft’s operation.
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran. After the meeting, Yenin said Iran was ready to provide equal compensations to the relatives of all victims of the UIA plane, regardless of their citizenship.
Iran submitted to Ukraine a draft technical report on the plane downing. Ukraine had two months to provide comments and suggestions on the report. In late February 2021, Ukraine handed more than 90 pages of comments on the draft technical report to Iran and insisted that Iran include them in the final document.
Iran released a final report, which stated it was an error by an air defense operator for the accidental downing of UIA Flight PS752. The plane was identified as a hostile target.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba contended that Iran’s final report on PS752 had failed to take into account Ukraine’s remarks and contained manipulative conclusions.
Canada criticized the released Iranian report on Flight PS752.and vowed to bring back justice on the case .
