Iran admits to 'unintentionally' shooting down Ukrainian passenger jet
Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft.
DUBAI (Reuters/AFP/Dunya News) – Iran on Saturday morning announced its military’s role in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet that killed all 176 people on board, saying the shoot-down was “unintentional” and blamed “human error” after consistent initial denial that it had happened in the tense aftermath of Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq.
An Iranian military statement, the first to indicate Iran’s shift in position, stated: “A Ukrainian aircraft which crashed earlier this week in Iran had flown close to a sensitive military site belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guards and was shot down unintentionally due to human error,” the Iranian military said in a statement read on state TV on Saturday.
It said that, at the time, planes had been spotted on radar near strategic sites which led to “further alertness” in air defence units, adding that responsible parties would be referred to a judicial department in the military and would be held accountable. The Iranian military statement also expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top authority in the Islamic Republic, was informed about the accidental shooting down of the Ukrainian airliner on Friday and said information should be publicly announced after a meeting of Iran’s top security body.
Iran “deeply regrets” the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner earlier this week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a tweet.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,” he wrote on Twitter. “My thoughts and prayers go to all the mourning families. I offer my sincerest condolences.” The investigation will continue, Rouhani wrote in a separate tweet.
The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake.
- Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 11, 2020
My thoughts and prayers go to all the mourning families. I offer my sincerest condolences. https://t.co/4dkePxupzm
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, also tweeted today put the blame on “U.S. adventurism” and stated, “A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces: Human error at time of crisis caused by U.S. adventurism led to disaster.”
“Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.”
A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces:
- Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 11, 2020
Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster
Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.
Those responsible for shooting down the Ukrainian jet in Tehran this week would "immediately" be brought before military justice, the general staff of the Iranian armed forces stated.
"We assure you that by pursuing fundamental reforms in operational processes at the armed forces’ level we will make it impossible to repeat such errors," the general staff added in a press release.
Meanwhile, Ukraine International Airlines President Yevhenii Dykhne said that he never doubted that the airline had not caused the crash of its passenger plane.
“We didn’t doubt for a second that our crew and our plane couldn’t be the cause for this horrible plane crash,” Dykhne said.
“These were our best guys and girls. The best,” he said.
Wednesday’s crash heightened pressure on Iran after months of friction with the United States and tit-for-tat attacks. A U.S. drone strike had killed an Iranian general in Iraq on Jan. 3, prompting Tehran to fire at U.S. targets on Wednesday.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, at least 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
Canada and the United States both said they believed an Iranian missile brought down the aircraft although they said it was probably an accident. Canada’s foreign minister had told Iran “the world is watching.”
Experts said mounting international scrutiny would have made it all but impossible to hide signs of a missile strike in an investigation and Iran may have felt a swift policy reversal was better than battling rising criticism abroad, as well as facing growing anger and grief over the crash at home.
“There’s nothing you can do to cover it up or hide it,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigator. “Evidence is evidence.”
Former U.S. Federal Aviation Administration accident investigator, Mike Daniel, told Reuters: “When the facts and evidence started coming out, I think it was inevitable that the government of Iran (would) accept culpability.”
Mobile phone footage posted and circulated by ordinary Iranians on Twitter after the crash had indicated that it came down in a ball of flames and exploded as it struck the ground.
Iran had said on Thursday it would download the information from voice and flight data recorders, known as black boxes, to determine what had happened, although it had said the process could take one to two months.
Tehran had on Friday said it wanted to download black box recordings itself from a Ukrainian airliner crash amid Western suspicions the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by mistake.
Earlier, Iran showed the voice and flight data recorders on state TV on Friday but said it could take a month or two to extract data.
Tehran said that it may ask Russia, Canada, France or Ukraine for help in a probe that could take one or two years to complete.
“We prefer to download the black boxes in Iran. But if we see that we can’t do that because the boxes are damaged, then we will seek help,” Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, told a news conference in Tehran.
Iran Guards commander accepts responsibility
The aerospace commander of Iran s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday accepted full responsibility for the shooting down of the passenger jet.
"I take full responsibility and I will obey whatever decision is taken," Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said in remarks broadcast on state television.
"I would prefer to die rather than witness such an incident."
Demands for justice
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Saturday that Iran punish those responsible for the downing of the plane and pay compensation.
"We expect Iran... to bring the guilty to the courts," the Ukrainian leader wrote on Facebook.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed an Iranian surface-to-air missile for downing the plane, though he said it may have been unintentional. He said closure and accountability were needed in the wake of the incident.
Trudeau also demanded "transparency, and justice for the families and loved ones of the victims".
"This is a national tragedy, and all Canadians are mourning together," his office said in a statement.
The United States wants a thorough and independent investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane, the State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East said on Friday.
“It is my understanding that we will certainly ask for an independent investigation into this, whether this is through our European partners, the Canadians being on the ground,” David Schenker told a news briefing in the United Arab Emirates.
“I have seen some rather disturbing reports that the accident area has already been contaminated or violated. I hope that is not the case.”
“We do believe that it’s likely that that plane was shot down by an Iranian missile,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a briefing on additional U.S. sanctions against Iran.
“We’re going to let the investigation play out before we make a final determination,” he added as Washington also announced sanction waivers for crash investigators.
The disaster came as tensions soared in the region after the Soleimani killing, and fears grew of an all-out war between Iran and its arch-enemy the United States.
Washington said the Soleimani strike was carried out to prevent "imminent", large-scale attacks on American embassies.
Tehran had vowed "severe revenge" for the killing of Soleimani before launching missiles at the bases in Iraq.
Iran has invited the United States, Ukraine, Canada and others to join the crash investigation.
It is Iran’s worst civil aviation disaster since 1988 when the US military said it shot down an Iran Air plane over the Gulf by mistake, killing all 290 people on board.
Video footage of the UIA 737, which The New York Times said it had verified, emerged and appeared to show the moment the airliner was hit.
A fast-moving object is seen rising at an angle into the sky before a bright flash appears, which dims and then continues moving forward. Several seconds later, an explosion is heard and the sky lights up.
Many airlines from around the world cancelled flights to and from Iran in the wake of the crash, or rerouted flights away from Iranian airspace.
Nations around the world have called for restraint and de-escalation, and fears of a full-blown conflict have subsided after US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran appeared to be standing down after targeting the US bases in Iraq.
PUBLIC GRIEF
In its initial denials, Iran had said accusations that a missile was to blame were “psychological warfare”.
Grief-stricken Iranians and others posted images related to the crash. Many complained Iran’s authorities had spent too much time trying to fend off criticism over the disaster instead of offering condolences and sympathising with victims.
One image circulating on social media showed a child’s red shoe in the dirt. Another was a selfie of a mother and daughter in their seats, sent to a loved one just before takeoff.
“Why were any civilian airlines flying out of Tehran airport in those conditions?” a user named Shiva Balaghi wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine had been looking at various possible causes of the crash, including an attack by a Russian-made missile, a collision, an engine explosion or terrorism.
A U.S. official had said data showed the plane airborne for two minutes after departing Tehran when heat signatures of two surface-to-air missiles were detected. There was an explosion in the vicinity and heat data showed the plane on fire as it fell. U.S. military satellites detect infrared emissions from heat.
U.S. President Donald Trump had said “somebody could have made a mistake.”
The disaster had echoes of an incident in 1988, when the U.S. warship USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 people. Washington said it was a tragic accident. Tehran said it was intentional.
