Ukrainian jet crash: Iran absolves armed forces; Canada, Ukraine dismiss final report

The Iranian Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO), on March 17, released its final report on the Ukrainian passenger plane crash. The 145 pages long report dedicated two full-fledged paragraphs on the accident's causes and its contributing factors. Regardless of the extensive detail, the officials eventually absolved the country's armed forces for their role in the crash. 

Final report on Ukrain jet crash

The first paragraph of the report stated that Iranian forces fired "two surface-to-air missiles at the flight PS752... (that) led the aircraft to crash into the ground and explode instantly." While, the following paragraph examined "other contributing factors", in which it discussed the "alertness" of troops on the ground. The report concluded that the accidental shot down resulted from an ‘unanticipated error’ in threat identification implying that the country's ‘alert’ troops responded to a ‘false’ threat by firing the missile immediately. 

"The mitigating measures and defence layers in risk management proved to be ineffective due to the occurrence of an unanticipated error in threat identifications, and ultimately failed to protect the flight safety against the threats caused by the alertness of defence forces," it read.

Previously, in July 2020, in a progress report, Iran's CAO said poor tuning of an anti-aircraft unit's radar was the main "human error" behind the tragedy. 

Canada, Ukraine deny absolution 

Iran’s report, however, has been dismissed by both Canada and Ukraine. Ukraine, which lost 11 citizens called it "a cynical attempt to hide (the) true causes" of the tragedy, while Canada, which lost 55 citizens and 30 permanent residents, said it is "incomplete and has no hard facts or evidence." Additionally, Kyiv also accused Tehran of snubbing its suggestions. “Ukraine has earlier sent Iran more than 90 pages of remarks and proposals to its draft final report and insisted on Iran including them into the final document. However, what we saw published today is just a cynical attempt to hide the true causes of the downing of our passenger aircraft, “ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement.

On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Iran's capital Tehran killing all 176 people aboard. Three days later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards admitted that the crash was caused by a missile which they fired ‘accidentally’.