Sunday, January 19, 2020

Bodies of Ukrainian victims of Iran plane crash return home

The bodies of 11 Ukrainians who died in a plane crash have been repatriated as Iran denies it has sent back the black boxes.
 All 176 on board the flight from Iran to Kiev were killed on 8 January, and most of them were Iranian or dual nationals.

Yesterday Iran said it would be sending the black boxes from the flight to Ukraine but on Sunday this was denied.
According to the IRNA news agency, the flight recorders are being examined in Iran and no decision has been taken to send them onto Ukraine.
Hassan Rezaifar, a director in charge of accident investigations at Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation told IRNA: "We are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran.
 "Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country."

On Sunday, the bodies of the 11 Ukrainians were brought to Kiev's Boryspil Airport on a Ukrainian air force plane.
An honour guard carried the coffins into the airport terminal where a farewell observance will take place until the evening.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looked on as the coffins draped in the flags were carried one by one from the plane to the waiting hearses.
Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko tweeted: "Today at Boryspil Airport the bereaved families and the whole nation have an opportunity to pay their respects to the Ukrainian crew and passengers of #PS752 who are now home.

As well as 11 Ukrainians, the victims included 57 Canadian citizens, 17 people from Sweden, four Afghans and four British citizens. Most of those killed were Iranians.
Canada has said there should be a full investigation and said the recorders should be sent to France for analysis.
https://news.sky.com/story/bodies-of-ukrainian-victims-of-iran-plane-crash-return-home-11912443