Missiles hit Ukraine jet 25 seconds apart, Iran says

Black boxes show passengers alive after blast

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 Iran’s 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-Zangeneh’s 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 Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shortly after taking off from Tehran’s 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 aircraft’s 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.

Iran’s 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.

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.

“What is evident is that Iran has accepted the responsibility for its mistake and therefore the country is ready for negotiations on paying full compensation,” Dehqani-Zangeneh was quoted as saying to IRNA.

News of the planned compensation talks came as the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran published a report on Sunday about the data downloaded from the Boeing 737’s flight and voice recorders.

The so-called black boxes have emerged as a focal point in efforts to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the downing of Flight PS752, with Iran dragging its feet for months before finally transferring them to France for downloading last month.

The recorders had only 19 seconds of conversation after the first explosion, according to the report, even though Dehqani-Zangeneh said the second missile hit the plane 25 seconds later.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada confirmed Sunday that it had received the report, which chair Kathy Fox described as “consistent with information that TSB investigators received while attending the download of the recorders in France.”

“The investigation is far from over,” she added.

An association representing the families of those killed dismissed Dehqani-Zangeneh’s statement, saying it raised more questions than answers, including why the Iranian anti-aircraft unit fired a second missile at the airliner.

“Our important questions regarding the reason for the delayed takeoff and the pilot’s communications within that hour, which should have been included in the report of the black boxes, have also been left conspicuously unanswered,” the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims said in a statement.