Iran Says Is Certain No Missile Hit Ukrainian Plane Before Crash

The remarks were made by Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s Aviation Organization, during a press conference held in Tehran Friday after countries with a stake in crisis-hit Boeing claimed that the airliner had probably been brought down by a missile.
The Iranian official said no comment can be made about the cause of the plane crash, which killed all the 176 on board on Wednesday morning, and the reason will be determined after opening the black box.
“However, we can state it with certainty that no missile has hit this airplane. The plane was flying for over 1.5 minutes while it was on fire, and the crash site shows the pilot had decided to return [to the airport],” he noted.
Abedzadeh said the Islamic Republic can download the black box data under normal circumstances, but since the box has been damaged, it will be difficult to directly extract information from the black box.
“We need special software and hardware which are available in our country, but if we fail to extract the data due to the damages of the black box, we will get help from other countries,” he noted.
At the same press conference, Hassan Rezaeifar, the head of the Aviation Organization’s commission for plane crash probes, said Ukraine, France, Canada, and Russia have all expressed their preparedness to assist Iran with the data extraction, and Tehran will do the job in one of these countries if it is not possible to do it inside Iran.
Iran had earlier urged all parties involved, including American multinational aviation corporation Boeing, to contribute to a probe into the crash.
“According to international regulations, representatives from the civil aviation agency of the country where the crash has taken place (Iran), the civil aviation agency of the country which has issued the airworthiness certificate (Ukraine), the owner of the airliner (Ukraine International Airlines), the aircraft manufacturer (Boeing Co.), and the jet engine manufacturer (CFM International) can participate in the investigation process. A delegate from Ukraine is already in Iran. We call upon Boeing Co. to dispatch its own representative to participate in the process of reading the black box data,” Ali Rabiei, spokesman for the Iranian administration, said in a statement released early on Friday.
“We also welcome the participation of all countries which have lost their nationals in the mishap,” the statement pointed out.
Rabiei then roundly dismissed the Pentagon’s allegations that missiles downed the Ukrainian jet, saying, “No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the claim had been fraudulent.”
“It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government, and those supporting it knowingly and unknowingly, are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimizing them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” the senior Iranian official pointed out.