Iranian authorities appear set to send the flight recorders of the Boeing 737-800 shot down over Tehran to France for download of their data.
The issue of reading the data following the event involving the Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, operating from Tehran to Kiev on 8 January, has been mired in political discussion.
But Iran’s foreign affairs ministry states that minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has informed Canadian counterpart Francoias-Philippe Champagne that the Iranian authorities will transfer the recorders to France “in the coming days”.
“A decision has been made regarding the sending of the [recorders], which will be implemented soon,” the ministry adds.
It states that the coronavirus outbreak – which badly affected Iran – has complicated the situation.
French authority BEA has the capability to retrieve the recorder information at its Paris facilities.
None of those on board the 737-800 survived after two missiles from a Tor-M1 anti-aircraft system were launched shortly after the aircraft took off.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation indicates that secondary radar contact with flight PS752 was initially lost about 3min after departure, as the aircraft climbed through 8,100ft, and that primary radar tracked it for a further 3min before it came down about 9nm from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.
