Iran reveals details of crashed Ukrainian plane

Tehran, Aug 24 (IANS) Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization has revealed details from the country's final report on the Ukrainian passenger plane crash that took place near Tehran in January.According to the data extracted from the plane's flight recorders, the aircraft's parameters were normal until the impact of a first missile at 6.14 a.m. on January 8, Xinhua news agency quoted Touraj Dehghani Zangeneh as saying on Sunday.After the impact, the black box inside the flight cabin continued to record the voices of four people of the crew who noticed the situation was "abnormal" and tried to retake control of the aircraft.The recording stopped 19 seconds later, before a second missile was shot 25 seconds after the first strike.Because the first missile explosion sent shrapnel into the plane, disrupting both the CVR and FBR aircraft's black boxes, it was not possible to analyze the activity and effects of the second missile, Dehghani added.The data was extracted in France between July 17-24, in presence of representatives of the US, Ukraine, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, without technical difficulties.Dehghani Zangeneh thanked the French Civil Aviation Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for its cooperation.The Ukraine PS752 flight was hit by Iranian missiles after taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 people onboard. Iran said that its forces "accidentally" shot down the plane.
--IANS ksk/