PARIS: Iran will send to France next month the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger jet that Tehran’s armed forces mistakenly shot down in January, killing all 176 people on board, French aviation investigators said Friday.
Iran has requested help with repairing and downloading data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Flight Data Recorder of the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, the Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authority tweeted.
“Technical work (is) planned to start July 20... The safety investigation is led by Iran,” it added.
The Boeing 737 was struck by two missiles and crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s airport on January 8.
The Islamic republic admitted days later that its forces accidentally shot down the Kiev-bound jetliner.
Many of the passengers on board were Canadian, and Ottawa has demanded for months that Iran — which does not have the technical means to decode the black boxes — send the items abroad so that their content can be analyzed.
The black boxes are expected to contain information about the last moments before the aircraft was struck.
Iran has said the delay in sending the boxes was caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen most international flights canceled.