Rezaifar said that Iran was also prepared to ask for expert analysis from France, Canada and the United States in trying to read the flight data recorder, part of the so-called black boxes. If experts in Kiev are unable to extract the data, the box will then be transferred to France, Rezaifar said.
“At the request of the Ukrainian authorities, the black boxes of the Ukrainian downed jet will not be read in Iran, but instead will be transferred to Ukraine for analysis and reading,” head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization commission Hassan Rezaifar told the semi-official news agency Tasnim.
Iran’s decision to send the boxes comes a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on the country to work with France, which has advanced technical capabilities in reading flight and cockpit data recorders. Fifty-seven Canadians were among those who died on the plane, according to Trudeau.
It also follows a phone call between Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko and his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif.
Iranian officials have not made clear what their military thought it was targeting when it downed the Ukrainian passenger plane.
