Champagne: Iran must provide immediate access to UIA plane black boxes
"We head the international coordination group on the investigation into the UIA plane crash in Iran and, primarily, we have discussed that Iran must provide access to black boxes without any further delay. Just as defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation," Champagne said at the joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
He recalled that more than 30 days had passed since the tragedy, and if Iran did not provide access to the black boxes of the downed plane, it could be a violation of international law.
"We must work all together to urge Iran to provide access to these boxes. I mean international organizations, Ukraine, Canada and other countries. Everything should be transparent... The access to the black boxes should be provided,” the Canadian Foreign Minister stressed.
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 the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
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