"Human Error" Thus Forgivable

"It does not explain any of the underlying factors behind why the missiles were launched at PS752, which is the stated cause of this accident."

"The report says what happened, but it doesn't answer the why. It is incomplete. It raises more questions than it answered."

"Given this unprecedented situation, where the state whose military was implicated in the event led the investigation, and given its impact within Canada, we feel that it is important to publicly convey our independent assessment of the final report."

"To date, Iran has provided no evidence to support this scenario [contained in the report]; however, it is a plausible explanation of what happened."

"Nor does the report discuss what steps the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has taken since then to identify the underlying safety deficiencies that allowed such an error to occur, nor what safety action has been taken to prevent such an event happening again."

"Without this, how can the international civil aviation community be assured that such a tragic event won't happen again?"

"[The filing of Iran's final report] doesn't end the quest for answers."

Kathy Fox, chairwoman, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Montreal 

"The underlying facts behind each of those [basic events in the report], is left unexplained or unknown."

"There are many things beneath the surface that are not in the report."

Ewan Tasker, Canadian representative observing Iranian investigation 

"It is unthinkable that a government can so ruthlessly murder innocent passengers as a sacrifice for its military adventurism and as a way to prevent a war in the face of its reckless behaviour."

Families of Flight PS752 victims

"They're hiding the information about the man responsible for ordering the missile launch and those who kept open the airspace that night."

"We know that they don't want to tell the truth."

Mohsen Ahmadipour, Gatineau Quebec

 

 

On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 left Tehran airport on what would under other circumstances, be a normal flight. But this was not a normal day. There was a tense atmosphere prevailing, a situation of downplayed conflict. Tehran was expecting an American response to Iran's having shot off a number of missiles toward a U.S. military base in Iraq which wounded a number of American military personnel. That launching of missiles was a retaliatory move by Iran on the targeted death-by-missile of its top general who led the Al Quds division of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps.

 

On Jan. 8, 2020, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in the skies over Tehran with two surface-to-air missiles, killing all 176 people aboard, including 138 people with ties to Canada. (Ebrahim Noroozi/Associated Press)

Flight PS752 was shot out of the sky mere minutes after takeoff. Struck by two Iranian military missiles. Loss of life was total, both passengers and crew, totalling 176 lives lost. The majority of the passengers were en route to Canada. There were 55 Canadian citizens aboard the flight, and another 30 people were permanent residents of Canada, while dozens more were either attending universities in Canada, or had other connections, travelling on visas.

 

According to the long-awaited Iranian report, Flight PS752 was erroneously identified as an incoming missile, a military threat. Caused, it was asserted, as a result of a misalignment of the missile launcher's radar which made the passenger plane's trajectory appear as though it was approaching Tehran, not moving away from it. Leading the operator to take immediate action to shoot down an 'incoming missile'. The operator, moreover had no permission to shoot, from senior officers, as would normally be the case. 

 

 Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 Reuters

The report, in fact, provides no evidence whatever to support the Iranian government's version of how events unfolded. No Canadian officials were given permission to hear the cockpit recordings, nor were they given access to the flight data recording from the black box There was no breakdown of Iran's military actions, an inadequate completion of the scope of Iran's report, critiqued the Transportation Safety Board.

 

Making it obvious that there was a lack of transparency and a presentation lacking sufficient independence of Iran's investigators from its government. The report as described by appointed representative Ewan Tasker to Iran's investigation,  is "thin" on answers, outlining basic events, yet failing to dig deeper on Iran's military and government roles in the tragedy. Mr.Tasker had rendered 120 questions and concerns from Canada before the completion of the report; the report failed to address them. 

 

The Transportation Board, despite the report, remained with unanswered questions of the utmost importance in the case. Starting with the sequence of events leading to the fired missiles. Then there is the stark disbelief that Iran would maintain open airspace during a military alert, to permit civilian airlines continued operation under such tense conditions. At the very time that Iran was anticipating the potential of an American attack with its defence forces in a state of readiness for war.

 

Iran took the U.S. assassination of Major-General Qassem Soleimani as a statement of war intent. Air traffic between Baghdad and Tehran had been suspended as a reflection of safety concerns, with measures in place to manage risk posed to civilian flights during the crisis. According to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the plane "was under control of Iranian air traffic control and the takeoff clearance was issued after coordination with [the] military sector."

 

Nine Ukrainian crew members were killed, along with 167 passengers   Reuters