UIA Vice President: Plane didn’t deviate from flight path

The Boeing 737 jet operated by Ukraine International Airlines took off from Tehran airport on January 8 with the permission of controller and there was no deviation from flight path.

 “Crew came on board, prepared the plane, received the permission to start the engines, left the airport area with the permission of controller. They got in touch after the take-off, despite the Iranians say that did not get in touch. They got in touch, reported on the take-off in an absolutely calm voice, received another permission to operate flight, and headed strictly in accordance with the controller’s permission,” Ihor Sosnovsky, Ukraine International Airlines Vice President for Operations, said at a briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He stressed that was a regular flight operated on Tehran-Kyiv route.

"There was no deviation from flight path despite someone wants to imply this," Sosnovsky said.

He also recalled that there were no restrictions on flights either from the Ukrainian administration or from the Iranian authorities. The Tehran airport operated as usual.

As reported, Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on Wednesday, January 8.

There were 176 people on board - 167 passengers (including two Ukrainians) and nine crew members (all Ukrainians). There were 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, ten citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany, and three citizens of the UK.

Previously, it was claimed that the crash had been caused by technical problems. Early today, Iran announced that it had shot down the UIA passenger plane accidentally. The plane was perceived as a hostile object as it approached Iran’s sensitive military base after take-off.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

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