This archive report was first published on 11 January 2020.
Iran Admits to Accidentally Shooting Down Ukrainian Airliner ¶
On Saturday, Iran announced that it had accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board. The announcement reversed Iran's previous claims that mechanical issues caused the crash.
The Iranian military's statement said that the plane 'took the flying posture and altitude of an enemy target' as it came close to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base. It said that 'under these circumstances, because of human error,' the plane 'came under fire.'
The statement added that the person responsible for shooting down the plane would face legal consequences, and that the military would undertake 'major reform in operations of all armed forces' to prevent such an error from happening again.
International pressure had been building on Iran to take responsibility for the crash. American and allied intelligence assessments had said that Iranian missiles brought down the plane, most likely by accident, amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tried to place some of the blame on the United States, saying on Twitter that the disaster was 'caused by U.S. adventurism led to disaster.'
State television in Iran aired footage that it said showed two black boxes recovered from the crash site. Processing their data could take more than a month, and the investigation could take up to two years, Hassan Rezaeifar, the head of the Iranian investigation team, said on Friday.
On social media, Iranians began expressing anger toward the military soon after the announcement, many of them using the term 'harshest revenge,' which officials had repeatedly promised in the wake of the American drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani last week.
