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A10 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 9 January 2020
Ukrainian airliner crashes in Iran, killing all 176 aboard

By MOHAMMAD NASIRI Rouhani tweeted. "Never
NASSER KARIMI threaten the Iranian na-
JON GAMBRELL tion."
Associated Press The Ukrainian plane, ful-
SHAHEDSHAHR, Iran (AP) ly loaded with fuel for its
— A Ukrainian airliner car- 2,300-kilometer (1,430-mile)
rying 176 people crashed flight, slammed into the
on the outskirts of Tehran ground near the town of
during a takeoff attempt Shahedshahr, causing fires
Wednesday hours after that lit up the darkened
Iran launched its missile at- fields before dawn.
tack on U.S. forces, scatter- Din Mohammad Qassemi
ing flaming debris and pas- said he had been watch-
sengers' belongings across ing the news about the Ira-
farmland and killing every- nian missile attack on U.S.
one on board. troops in Iraq in revenge for
The Iranian military dis- the killing of Gen. Qassem
puted any suggestion the Soleimani when he heard
plane had been blown out the crash.
of the sky by a missile, and "I heard a massive explo-
Iranian aviation authorities sion and all the houses
said they suspected a me- started to shake. There was
chanical problem brought fire everywhere," he said.
down the 3½-year-old Debris is seen from a plane crash on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020. "At first I thought (the Amer-
Boeing 737. Ukrainian of- Associated Press icans) have hit here with
ficials initially agreed but missiles and went in the
later backed away and saddened." He vowed Razaeifar, the head of the have known that so quick- basement as a shelter. Af-
declined to offer a cause the government will work air crash investigation com- ly," said John Hansman, an ter a while, I went out and
while the investigation is to "ensure that this crash mittee. He did not elabo- aeronautics professor at saw a plane has crashed
going on. is thoroughly investigated rate. MIT. "They hadn't had time over there. Body parts were
The Ukraine International and that Canadians' ques- Ukraine International Air- to look at the flight data lying around everywhere."
Airlines jet was en route to tions are answered." lines President Yevhen recorder. They probably The crash left a wide field
the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv Major world airlines Dykhne, said the aircraft hadn't had time to inves- of debris scattered across
with 167 passengers and Wednesday rerouted flights "was one of the best planes tigate the physical wreck- farmland, the dead lying
nine crew members from crossing the Middle East to we had, with an amazing, age of the engines. How among pieces of the shat-
several countries, including avoid danger amid esca- reliable crew." In a state- do you know it was a me- tered aircraft. Their pos-
82 Iranians, at least 63 Ca- lating tensions between the ment, the airline went fur- chanical issue versus a sur- sessions, including a child's
nadians and 11 Ukrainians, U.S. and Iran, and the U.S. ther, saying: "Given the face-to-air missile that went cartoon-covered electric
according to officials. Federal Aviation Adminis- crew's experience, error in the engine?" toothbrush, a stuffed ani-
Many of the passengers tration barred American probability is minimal. We Many planes have systems mal, luggage and electron-
were believed to be inter- flights from certain Persian do not even consider such that send huge amounts of ics, stretched everywhere.
national students attend- Gulf airspace, warning of a chance." technical data, including Rescuers in masks shouted
ing universities in Canada; the "potential for miscalcu- Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, potential problems with the over the noise of hovering
they were making their way lation or misidentification" spokesman for the Ira- engines or other key sys- helicopters. They quickly
back to Toronto by way of of civilian aircraft. nian armed forces, was tems, to the airline and the realized there would be no
Kyiv after visiting with fam- The plane had been de- quoted by the semiofficial manufacturer. But it was survivors.
ily during the winter break. layed from taking off from Fars news agency as de- unclear whether Ukraine This was the first fatal crash
The manifest included sev- Tehran's Imam Khomeini nying the plane has been International had paid to involving Ukraine Interna-
eral teenagers and chil- International Airport by al- brought down by a missile. download that informa- tional Airlines, which began
dren, some as young as 1 most an hour. "The rumors about the tion automatically during flying in 1992, according
or 2. It never made it above plane are completely false flights, or how much data to the Aviation Safety Net-
Ukraine's President Volody- 8,000 feet, crashing just and no military or political from such a short flight work, which tracks acci-
myr Zelenskiy cut short a vis- minutes after takeoff, ac- expert has confirmed it," would tell. dents.
it to Oman to return to Kyiv cording to data from the he said. He said the rumors A Boeing spokesman de- As for the Boeing 737-800
and said a team of Ukrai- flight-tracking website were "psychological war- clined to say whether the model that went down, it an
nian experts would go to FlightRadar24. fare" by the government's company obtained any extremely common twin-
Tehran to help investigate Qassem Biniaz, a spokes- opponents. information about the jet engine jetliner introduced
the crash. man for Iran's Road and Authorities said they found during its ill-fated flight. in the late 1990s, with thou-
"Our priority is to find the Transportation Ministry, said the plane's so-called black In 1988, a U.S. Navy cruiser sands in use around the
truth and everyone respon- it appeared a fire erupted boxes, which record cock- mistakenly shot down an world, and has one of the
sible for the tragedy," he in one of its engines and pit conversations and in- Iranian passenger jet over best safety records among
wrote in a Facebook state- the pilot lost control of the strument data. But it was the Persian Gulf, killing 290 popular airliners.
ment. plane, according to the not immediately clear how people. Earlier this week, The Aviation Safety Net-
In Canada, where the state-run IRNA news agen- much access to the infor- Iranian President Hassan work said there have been
crash ranked among the cy. The news report did not mation the Iranians would Rouhani referred to that eight fatal crashes involv-
worst losses of life for Cana- explain how Iranian author- allow. episode in responding to ing the Boeing 737-800
dians in an aviation disas- ities knew that. Aviation experts were President Donald Trump's out of nearly 5,000 built. A
ter, the flag over Parliament The pilot apparently skeptical about Iran's initial threat to attack 52 targets FlyDubai crash in Russia in
in Ottawa was lowered to couldn't communicate claim that the plane was in Iran. 2016 killed 62 people, and
half-staff, and Prime Minis- with air-traffic controllers in brought down by a me- "Those who refer to the an Air India Express disaster
ter Justin Trudeau said the Tehran in the last moments chanical problem. number 52 should also re- in India in 2010 left more
country is "shocked and of the flight, said Hassan "I don't see how they would member the number 290," than 150 dead.q