Decoding black boxes of Ukrainian plane complete; Iran sends results to related countries

Tehran, August 23, IRNA – Head of Civil Aviation Organization of Iran Touraj Dehqani Zangeneh said on Sunday that decoding black boxes of the Ukrainian passenger plane was completed and the data recovered from the black boxes have now been sent to the countries which have lost their citizens. Zangeneh made the remarks in a press conference in Tehran where he described the results of decoding the black boxes of the Ukrainian passenger plane crashed in the Iranian capital seven months ago. He said that the black boxes were downloaded at a center in France on July 18-25. Representatives from different countries, including the US, as the country in which the plane had been made, Ukraine, as the flag-carrier, and France, which rendered services and technical advice to the plane, were present at the process of decoding the black boxes, the official said. Canada, Britain, and Sweden, whose citizens were among the victims of the air disaster, also had representatives at the process, he added. A Boeing 737 belonging to the Ukrainian airline had just left Tehran's International Imam Khomeini Airport on January 8 when it was mistakenly shut down by Iranian civil air defense. All those onboard the plane died.