Iranian minister says black box of downed Ukrainian plane must remain in Tehran
He further described that in case of any problems with decoding the black box, required decisions will be made to ask the other involved sides for help, Mehr News Agency reported.
"The black box is an inseparable item of the incident and since the crash has taken place in Iran, according to Annex 13 of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Iran Civil Aviation Organization is in charge of investigations," he said.
"A delegation has also traveled to Ukraine to study the documents of the airplane," he added.
Informing about his recent trip to Ukraine, the minister said he had conveyed condolences of the Iranian President to the Ukrainian President and nation, while the other side expressed gratitude for Iran's cooperation on the issue.
As reported, a 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 – nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK).
On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
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