Iran says investigation into airline crash could take one to two years

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Iran said on Friday it wanted to download black box recordings itself from a Ukrainian airliner that crashed, killing all 176 people aboard, after Canada and others said the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by mistake.

Iran, which has denied the Boeing 737-800 was downed by a missile, said it could take one or two months to extract information from the voice and flight data recorders. It said it could ask Russia, Canada, France or Ukraine if it needed help.

Tehran also said the probe might take one or two years.

ran's civil aviation chief Ali Abedzadeh delivering a press statement in Tehran
A handout image grab from footage obtained from the Iran press News Agency (Iran Press) shows, what Iran’s civil aviation says is the black box of the Ukrainian airline during a press statement in Tehran, Iran, 10 January 2020. EPA-EFE/IRAN PRESS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he could not rule out a missile strike, but this had not been confirmed. Kiev has said its investigators wanted to search the crash site for any debris of a Russian-made missile used by Iran.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight to Kiev from Tehran crashed on Wednesday, when Iran was on alert for a U.S. military response hours after firing missiles at U.S. targets in Iraq.

Read more via Reuters/ Kyiv Post

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