Canada Released a Report on UIA Plane Crash in Iran

Iran has not properly investigated the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines aircraft that was shot down by the Iranian military near Tehran in January 2020. Many essential details of this tragedy are still unknown. A published Canadian report, prepared by Ralph Goodale, the special adviser to the prime minister Justin Trudeau on the crash, stated this.

The document is “the latest expression of Western disappointment with how Iran responds to the tragedy’s aftermath, which claimed 176 victims.”

“Canada will continue to work vigorously with the international coordination and response team to bring Iran to justice for the PS752 shot down and to find certain justice mechanisms, demanding full reparations by Iran to its victims, relatives and participating states,” the document said.

The situation is also complicated by the fact that Canada does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, and Tehran has not expressed a desire to co-operate. However, Canada “intends to express its concern about what had happened to the PS752 in all relevant international forums to show the families’ anger and to aid preventing the conditions and behaviour that made the sky over Tehran so dangerous that fateful morning.”

In addition, the document endorses the Canadian Safer Sky initiative, which aims to prevent the PS752 and MH17 aircrafts tragedies’ recurrence, and calls for special attention to the needs of the relatives of plane crash victims.

It also describes the Government of Canada’s reaction to the information about the passenger plane crash near Tehran by the hour and brings up many points that the Iranian side must answer.

To recap, the UIA Boeing 737 passenger plane was shot down on the night of 7-8 January near the capital of Iran. There were 176 people on board, nine of them were crew members. Most of the victims were citizens of Iran and Canada. Among victims were 11 Ukrainians.

Bohdan Marusyak