Iran Press/Europe: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the public to abstain from speculating about what may have caused a Ukrainian airliner to crash in Iran. He also said Kiev was ready to retrieve victims’ bodies.
Zelensky said that his government had special planes for transporting the victims back to Ukraine, but was waiting for the go-ahead from Tehran, Sputnik reported.
Zelensky issued a statement expressing his condolences and cut short his trip to Oman after learning about the crash.
Rumors circulated on social media that a missile fired on the Ukrainian passenger plane caused its crash near Tehran on Wednesday 8th January. Some Western governments have also claimed that a missile was mistakenly fired at the aircraft.
However, the Iranian government's spokesman said in a statement: "It is regrettable that the US government's psychological operations system and its informed or uninformed allies are adding salt to the pains of the bereaved families with these lies and victimize affected families to reach their goals in the psychological operations."
As per the international rules, aviation organization of the country wherein the incident occurred (Iran), aviation organization of the country issued qualification for the flight (Ukraine), owner of the plane (Ukraine), factory builder of the plane (Boeing) and factory builder of the engine of the plane (France) can take part in the investigation of the incident.
The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said the fire had been on the Ukrainian Boeing plane for more than a minute, and before the crash, witnesses had seen the fire and if the missile had hit the plane it would have been exploded instantly.
He emphasized that technically It is not feasible the aircraft has been exploded due to rocket fire.
Meanwhile, five Western security sources told Reuters that the Ukrainian airliner that crashed in Iran with no survivors suffered a technical malfunction and wasn't brought down by a missile, five Western security sources told Reuters.
A Boeing 737 passenger plane belonging to the Ukrainian Airlines crashed minutes after taking off from Iran's Imam Khomeini Airport. 101/219
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