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Zelensky, Iran’s envoy discuss handover of black boxes from downed Ukrainian plane

Earlier on Monday, the chief of the air incidents investigation board of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said that the Iranian authorities would pass data from the black boxes to Ukraine

KIEV, January 20./TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met on Monday with a special envoy of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived in Kiev to discuss the handover of the flight data recorders from the Ukrainian passenger plane, which was accidentally downed outside Tehran on January 8, the press service of Zelensky’s Office reported on Monday.

"Vladimir Zelensky has discussed with a special envoy of Iran’s president the issue of handing over to Ukraine the flight recorders from the Ukrainian plane to decode them," the report said. "He emphasized that Ukraine had all necessary technical capabilities and experienced specialists for doing this work properly," the report said.

According to the Office, Ukraine expects the arrival of a team of Iranian specialists, who will familiarize themselves with Kiev’s technical potentials to decode the black boxes. "The sides agreed that all fragments of the plane remaining after the crash must be returned to Ukraine," the report said.

Besides, the Office quoted Zelensky as saying that all agreements with the Iranian president "were basically implemented," specifying them as an access to work in Tehran for 45 Ukrainian specialists, identification of the Ukrainian nationals killed in the crash and their airlifting to Ukraine.

Earlier on Monday, the chief of the air incidents investigation board of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Hassan Rezaiefar, said that the Iranian authorities would pass data from the black boxes to Ukraine. Earlier, he said that Iran had not yet taken the decision to send the black boxes abroad and was itself decoding the fight recorders.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Tehran was dispatching to Kiev Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami with a letter from the president to Zelensky over the plane crash.

On January 8, a Boeing-737 of the Ukrainian International Airlines bound for Kiev crashed minutes after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport. The crash killed all 176 people on board - citizens of Afghanistan, Germany, Iran, Canada and Ukraine and also British and Swedish subjects. On January 11, Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff released a statement admitting the plane had been mistakenly shot down. According to Iranian Brigadier-General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the plane was misidentified as a cruise missile by the air defense force.