Anger in Canada as Iran offers only limited access to its crash probe
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Iran’s civil aviation authority has said it’s following international rules and will allow other countries to participate in its investigation of a plane crash that killed 63 Canadians.
But the role Canada is being offered by Tehran amounts to the bare minimum required by the international legal convention on aviation accident investigations — and at this point does not include active participation in the probe into the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 on Wednesday, or access to information from the flight data recorder.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that won’t be enough — that Canada needs full access for its experts to help with the investigation.
“The families of the victims and all Canadians want answers,” said Trudeau. “I want answers. That means closure, transparency, accountability and justice.”
Trudeau also said evidence suggests an Iranian missile brought down a Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed near Tehran, possibly in error.
The leaders of Canada and the UK called for a full and thorough investigation into the crash, which killed all 176 people on board.
Iran has ruled out a missile strike by its air defences.
The crash came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.
The Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed by 193 governments around the world, includes standards and requirements for international cooperation on aircraft accident investigations.
Since Canadians died onboard Flight PS752 in Tehran, Canada has some rights that kick in automatically, according to the international requirements.
