(Eagle News) — Iran admitted that it had “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 people after the jet flew close to a “sensitive military center.”
The statement by the Iran military was read on state TV, and was immediately reported by various news agencies.
It said that people responsible for this would be held accountable.
Iran’s armed forces said it mistook the Ukraine jet that just took off from an airport in Tehran as a “hostile plane.”
-Human error-
Immediately after the announcement, the Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif tweeted this statement: “A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces: 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,” he said.
A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces:
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.
💔— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 11, 2020
Before this, Iran had previously denied speculations that it was responsible for the Ukrainian plane crash.
This came as Ukraine said its experts had been granted access to the black box flight recorders and as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated it was “likely” an Iranian missile had downed the plane.
Ukraine also examined the Boeing’s flight path and determined that it was “100 percent correct,” according to Ukraine Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko.
Most of the passengers of the Ukraine plane were Iranians.
According to initial reports, there were 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons were on board, as well as 11 Ukrainians — including nine crew, aboard the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752
About 30 came from the Iranian community around Edmonton, capital of Alberta province in western Canada, where resident Payman Parseyan described the tragedy as “devastating.”
(with a report from Agence France Presse)
