Black Box of a Downed Ukrainian Plane Arrived in France

The French Bureau of Civil Aviation Investigation and Analysis has received the black box of the Ukrainian International Airlines passenger plane that was downed in Tehran earlier this year.

The French bureau announced this on Twitter, noting that Iranian investigators arrived in France together with the flight recorders.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced that the recorders arrived in Lyon on Saturday under increased secrecy.

“Our experts from the National Bureau on air crash investigations are also involved in the process of decrypting the boxes.  On the first stage, the participants agree on the methods of reading information out of the black box. After that, the experts will move on to the practical part of the job. The job can be completed fairly quickly, but it depends on the technical condition of the box,” the head of state said.

He also added that “Ukraine is looking forward to receiving the results of the black boxes deciphering and starting the negotiation process with Iran.”

Representatives of several organisations, including the Ukrainian International Airlines, investigators from the United States, Canada, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Sweden, will take part in deciphering the recordings.

Authorities in France and Iran signed an agreement on technical cooperation in deciphering recorders on 4 July.

UIA’s Boeing-737 was downed shortly after take-off on 8 January during the Tehran- Kyiv flight. All 167 passengers and nine crew members on board were killed.

Iran initially blamed technical problems for the downing of the plane but admitted days later that it was shot down by a military servant.

Bohdan Marusyak