Picture : Twitter / ANI
167 passengers and nine crew members were killed when a Ukraine International Airlines flight crashed minutes after take-off from Tehran airport , according to Iran’s state media.
‘All the 167 passengers and nine crew members were killed in the crash,’ IRNA news agency quoted a spokesperson of the Imam Khomeini Airport as saying.
As per Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA, the crash was due to technical difficulties.
The crash came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing United States forces in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani.
The flight had crashed near the airport in southern Tehran minutes after take-off when its engine caught fire, IRNA said.
The plane, which is reported to have been a Boeing 737, was on its way to Kiev in Ukraine from Tehran.
Iran’s aviation authority said it would not hand over to Americans the recovered black boxes of a Boeing 737 that crashed on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew.
“We will not give the black boxes to the manufacturer (Boeing) and the Americans,” Iran Civil Aviation Organisation head Ali Abedzadeh said, quoted by Mehr news agency.
“It’s not yet clear which country the black box will go to for the investigation,” he added.
Following the crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday, Iran said it had recovered the Boeing 737’s two black boxes.
Abedzadeh said that based on global aviation rules, it was the right of the country where air crashes occur to carry out the investigation.
“This accident will be investigated by Iran’s aviation organisation but the Ukrainians can also be present during the incident’s investigation,” he added.
