A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed on
Wednesday, just minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital's main
airport, turning farmland on the outskirts of Tehran into fields of flaming
debris and killing all on board.
The crash of Ukraine International Airlines came hours after
Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. soldiers,
but Iranian officials said they suspected a mechanical issue brought down the
3½-year-old Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Ukrainian officials initially agreed, but
later backed away and declined to offer a cause while the investigation is
ongoing.
The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from
different nations. Ukraine's foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said that there
were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians on board — the Ukrainian
nationals included two passengers and the nine crew. There were also 10
Swedish, four Afghan, three German and three British nationals, he said.
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| Ukranian plane crash |
Airline officials said most of the passengers were en route
to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, transiting through there to other destinations.
Staff at the Boryspil airport in Kyiv, told The Associated Press that
passengers on this flight are usually Iranian students coming back to Ukraine
after winter holidays.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy extended his
condolences to the families of the victims. His office said he had cut his
visit to Oman short and was returning to Kyiv because of the crash. The
country's Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk confirmed the casualty toll.
"Our task is to establish the cause of the crash of the
Boeing and provide all necessary help to the families of the victims,"
said parliament speaker, Dmytro Razumkov, in a Facebook statement.
The crash shocked Canada. Foreign Minister François-Philippe
Champagne called it tragic news and said Wednesday Canada's “hearts are with
the loved ones of the victims, including many Canadians.”
Ukraine International Airlines said it had indefinitely
suspended flights to Tehran after the crash. "It was one of the best
planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew," Yevhen Dykhne, president
of the Ukraine International Airlines, said at a briefing following the crash.
Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, ordered a sweeping
inspection of all civil airplanes in the country, “no matter the conclusions
about the crash in Iran.”
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Imam
Khomeini International Airport by almost an hour. It took off to the west, but
never made it above 8,000 feet in the air, according to data from the
flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
It remains unclear what happened. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman
for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared a fire struck one
of its engines. The pilot of the aircraft then lost control of the plane,
sending it crashing into the ground, Biniaz said, according to the state-run
IRNA news agency.
Hassan Razaeifar, the head of air crash investigation
committee, said it appeared the pilot couldn't communicate with air-traffic
controllers in Tehran in the last moments of the flight. He did not elaborate.
Authorities later said they found the plane's so-called “black boxes,” which
record cockpit conversations and instrument data.
Ukrainian authorities have offered to help with the
investigation of the plane crash. "We're preparing a group of specialists
in order to help with the search operation and the investigation of the cause
of the crash," Honcharuk said.
The plane, fully loaded with fuel for its 2,300-kilometer
(1,430-mile) flight, slammed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr on the
outskirts of Tehran. Videos taken immediately after the crash show blazes
lighting up the darkened fields before dawn.
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