Iranian sky safe for foreign flights, aviation official says

Tehran, August 23, IRNA - Head of Civil Aviation Organization of Iran Touraj Dehqani Zangeneh said that the foreign airlines should be assured that flying from the Iranian sky is safe. Dehqani Zangeneh made the remarks at 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 Civil Aviation Organization ensures all airlines that Iran's sky is safe for the flights that used the sky of Iran in the past and now they do not use anymore. He went on to say that "according to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines and the country's existing national laws, which are also approved by the government delegation, we must report the final result within a year; but I ordered my colleagues at the airline to inform the public of the final crash investigation report as soon as possible." 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.