DUBAI Analysis from the black boxes of Ukraine Flight PS752 shows it was hit by two missiles 25 seconds apart and that passengers including the 55 Canadians onboard were still alive for some time after the impact of the first blast, Iran said on Sunday.
The head of Irans Civil Aviation Organization also said Iran will launch compensation talks in October with Canada and other countries that lost citizens when the civilian jetliner was shot down by the Iranian military on Jan. 8.
Touraj Dehqani Zangenehs comments came with release of the first official report on the contents of the cockpit voice and data recordings, which were sent to France for reading in July.
Tehran has said it accidentally shot down the Ukraine airliner at a time of extreme tensions with the United States. All 176 people aboard the plane were killed.
The plane was shot down by Irans Revolutionary Guards shortly after taking off from Tehrans main airport on the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq a response to the American drone strike that killed a prominent Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad on Jan. 3.
Dehghani-Zanganeh was cited by state television on Sunday as saying the second missile hit Flight PS752 25 seconds after the first, but only 19 seconds of that gap was captured on the recordings because of damage from the first missile.
Nineteen seconds after the first missile hit the plane, the voices of pilots inside the cockpit indicated that the passengers were alive 25 seconds later the second missile hit the plane, he was reported as saying.
The aircrafts flight crew two pilots and an instructor also travelling in the cockpit tried to keep control of the plane until the last moment, he said.
Iran has been in talks with Ukraine, Canada and other nations that had citizens aboard the downed plane, and who have demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
Irans investigation is being carried out under United Nations aviation rules calling for probes aimed solely at preventing future accidents, separately from any judicial process. But the probe has been swept up in regional and domestic tensions.
Some Iranians took to Twitter on Sunday to show their anger, with at least one user tweeting They were alive for 19 seconds a tragedy.
Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Dehqani-Zangeneh said the Iranian government was prepared to fully compensate the families of those killed in the crash, which included 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents.read more
Black boxes from downed Ukraine jet show passengers were still alive after first missile hit, Iran says – National Post
