Iran-US tensions to cloud Ukraine jet crash inquiries

Investigations into the Ukrainian passenger jet disaster in Iran could fall victim to tensions between Tehran and Washington.

A colleague of the flight crew members of the Ukrainian 737-800 plane that crashed on the outskirts of Tehran lights a candle at a memorial inside Boryspil international airport at Kiev, Ukraine Picture: AP

Clear international rules govern investigations into air crashes, but in the case of Wednesday’s Ukrainian passenger jet disaster in Iran they could fall victim to heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed less than three minutes after taking off from Tehran’s airport, killing all 176 people onboard, mostly Iranians and Canadians. Tehran has already indicated it will not hand over to Americans the recovered flight recorders, the so-called black boxes, for investigation.

The rules on probes into air crashes are set down in the 1944 Chicago Convention on Inter­national Civil Aviation, and responsibility for the investigations is assigned to the countries where they occur. This puts Iran in charge of the investigation, but the country that manufactured the aircraft and the country of the airline that operated the plane are also supposed to have represent­atives involved in the probe.

In theory this means the US National Transportation Safety Board, the body charged with investiga­ting air accidents, would be involved as Boeing is based in the US, and would likely rely on experts from the manufacturer.

“That could be a little complic­ated,” noted Jean-Paul Troadec, former head of France’s BEA ­airline safety agency.

The crash came on the same day US-Iranian tensions hit new heights as Iran fired a volley of missiles at Iraqi bases housing US and other foreign troops, the Islam­ic republic’s first physical respons­e since the US killed a top Iranian general.

Boeing said it was in contact with Ukraine International Airlines and was “ready to assist in any way needed”. However, Iran Civil Aviation Organisation head Ali Abedzadeh said while the Ukrainians were free to participate in the probe, “we will not give the black boxes to the manufacturer and the Americans”, according to the Mehr news agency.

A spokesman said the NTSB was tracking developments and would follow normal procedures regarding international accidents. The NTSB was also in contact with the US State Department to determine the best way to proceed with respect to Iran, he said.

The vast majority of the passengers­ were non-Ukrainians, including 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians­. Of the 11 Ukrainians on the plane, nine were crew.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin­ Trudeau said Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne would call Iranian counter­part Mohammad Javad Zarif to underline the need for a proper probe of the crash. In Washington, US Secretary of State Mike ­Pompeo called for complete co-operation with any investigation into the cause of the crash.

Reading information from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder was not in itself hard, according to Mr Troadec.

“The difficulty is if the recorders are in very poor condition, then you need labs which have the experience and equipment” in recovering data, he said. As well as the NTSB, Mr Troadec said, the BEA and its counterparts in Britain and Germany had the know-how to handle data recovery in such situations, and possibly Russia.

The BEA said it had yet to receive­ any request for assistance from the Ukrainian authorities.

The Chicago Convention also allows a country to let another country take charge of a probe.

Dutch authorities carried out the investigations into the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, ­killing 298 people­ including 193 Dutch citizens and 41 Australians and residents.

At Ukraine’s Boryspil airport, flowers and candles were laid out in front of portraits of the crew killed in the crash. “I knew them all,” said Artem, a UIA pilot, who laid a bouquet of red roses.

AFP, Reuters