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Iran rejects accusations it shot down Ukrainian passenger jet as calls for full disclosure increase

January 11, 2020

Iran has rejected one of their missiles caused the Ukrainian passenger jet to crash in Tehran on Wednesday.

Iran's civil aviation chief Ali Abedzadeh rejected claims made by the UK, Canada and US who suggested the plane had been hit by a missile, according to the BBC.

Mr Abedzadeh said today at a news conference he was "certain" the plane wasn't shot down by a missile. 

"The thing that is clear to us and that we can say with certainty is that this plane was not hit by a missile," he told media.

"As I said last night, this plane for more than one and a half minutes was on fire and was in the air, and the location shows that the pilot was attempting to return."

The crash which killed 176 people happened only hours after Iran launched missiles strike on air bases in Iraq where US soldiers were based in retaliation for America's killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

US media speculated the passenger jet may have been accidentally mistaken for a warplane.

The victims included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons, according to Ukranian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko.

Images from the crash site today showed the debris being cleared away despite Iran promising a full investigation.

The removal of debris prompts concerns of important evidence being removed.

The 'black box' recovered from the wreckage will be opened today.

However, Iran said the process could take up to two months to download the information, Iran’s official Irna news agency reported.

Justin Trudeau is calling for a full investigation into the crash.

Iran initially said it would not hand over the information from the black box to the US or Boeing, the plane’s manufacturer.

However, the US National Transportation Safety Board is now involved with the investigation, with support from Boeing.


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