A UIA Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration
UR-PSR performing flight PS-752 from Tehran Imam Khomeini (Iran) to Kiev
(Ukraine) with 167 passengers and 9 crew, was climbing through 8000 feet out of
Tehran's runway 29R about 12nm northwest of the airport at about 06:18L
(02:48Z), when the aircraft's transponder signals ceased. The aircraft was found
in an open field near Parand, a surbub of Tehran, at position N35.5529 E51.1121
about 10nm east of the last transponder position (N35.52 E50.91). All occupants
perished in the crash.
Iran's Civil Aviation Authority CAO reported the
aircraft was handed off by ATC at about 06:18L near Tehran when it fell to the
ground. Initial reports indicate all occupants have been killed in the impact.
Iran's Accident Investigation Board has dispatched investigators on site. Most
occupants were Irani citizens, a number of occupants were citizens of other
nations.
Iran's Emergency Services reported no survivors were found by
rescue and recovery units dispatched to the crash site.
Ukraine's Embassy
to the Iran tweeted that UIA confirmed their aircraft crashed near Tehran
Airport after takeoff. According to first information all occupants have been
killed. A task force and a hotline for relatives has been set up. The Embassy
subsequently added a statement on their website stating: "According to
preliminary information from the Iranian side, the plane crashed due to an
engine failure due to technical reasons. The version of the terrorist attack or
rocket attack is currently excluded." All 9 crew were Ukrainian citizens. At
around 08:20Z on Jan 8th 2020 the embassy entirely withdrew their message on
their website and replaced it with a travel warning for Iran. On their Twitter
feed the Embassy reported according to passenger manifest the aircraft carried
82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians (including 9 crew), 10 Swedish
citizens, 4 Afghanistan citizens, 3 Germans and 3 British citizens (176
occupants). The embassy later reinstated their earlier, withdrawn message
however without the sentence regarding the engine failure, now stating instead:
"Information on the causes of the plane crash is clarified by the accident
investigation commission. Any statements regarding the causes of the accident
before the commission decision are not official."
Iran's Accident
Investigation Board reported all their investigators are out to investigate the
crash. The crew did not transmit any emergency call and did not indicate any
problems. The aircraft crashed about 5 minutes after departure. In the evening
the AIB reported the black boxes have not yet been located.
In the late
evening the chairman of Iran's CAO reported the black boxes have been located.
Iran will not send the black boxes to the USA (NTSB or Boeing) for read out and
will not permit the participation of US authorities in the investigation.
Investigators from the Ukraine are welcomed however. It is not yet clear where
the black boxes will be sent to for read out and analysis.
In a reaction
the U.S. Department of State pledged to provide full support for the
investigation to the Ukrainian Authorities.
Iran's states news agency
IRNA reports 147 occupants were Irani citizens, 32 occupants were citizens of
other countries (editorial note: this is 3 people more than the official
passenger and crew count released by CAO).
On Jan 9th 2020 Iran's
AIB released a
brief first report in Persian stating the
aircraft began taxi for departure at 06:05L, commenced takeoff at 06:12L and in
contact with Imam Khomeini Tower was cleared to climb to FL260. At 06:18L the
aircraft climbed through 8000 feet, when the aircraft disappeared from radar, no
radio message was received from the aircraft afterwards. Until that point the
aircraft had been heading westwards, subsequently it made a right turn as if
turning back to the airport due to a technical problem, but impacted ground on
that way. A huge explosion occurred as result of impact with the ground. Initial
contact with the ground was in a park area, several more collisions with the
ground occurred as the aircraft broke up and spread along its trajectory. The
ELT activated, however, its antenna separated from the device. All occupants,
167 passengers and 9 crew, perished in the crash, 146 of the passengers used
Iranian passports for check in (a number of them holding multiple citizenships),
10 passengers used Afghan, 5 used Canadian, 4 used Swedish and two used
Ukrainian passports (all 9 crew also used Ukrainian passports). Witnesses on the
ground as well as flight crews at altitude observing the aircraft reported the
aircraft was on fire. Both cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were
found with impact and fire damage, the memory units are available however also
show physical damage on main parts. The AIB sent initial notifications of the
accident to Ukraine as country of registration and operation of the aircraft, to
the USA as manufacturer, Sweden and Canada as applicants whose nationals were
involved in the accident. The AIB requested the Ukraine to participate in the
investigation. In accordance with the Chicago Convention the Iranian AIB invites
all states, that are recognized as participants into the accident investigation
by this document, to accredit representatives. A team of Ukrainian experts are
already being dispatched to Iran.
During the night from Jan
8th to Jan 9th 2020 somebody on Twitter released a photo of a Tor 9K331 warhead
presumably found at the crash site (and temporarily even the reader comments
below flooded over referencing that photo). The location as well as the
authenticity of the photo were not verifyable. The Aviation Herald therefore
sent an inquiry to Iran's AIB with the photo, the supposed location at the crash
site and relevant links in support and contradicting the authenticity of that
photo and asked, whether the accident investigation had found such a part
(expressing the hope that these issues wouldn't add too much to the stresses of
the AIB). Iran's AIB Chairman Hassan Rezaeifar responded stating: "We save
evidence and wreckage of the aircraft and never found this part. All wreckage
parts were transferred to the special hanger in order to investigate with
cooperation of NTSB, Ukraine NBAI and other interest parties which has been
invited officially." Mr. Rezaeifar continued: "Due to special political
condition of my country, we instituted a special group more than technical
accident investigation groups to assess the condition of Laser attack or
dangerous good- electromagnetic (radioactive threat) and unlawful action. The
initial conclusion of this group confirmed that there was not found any evidence
of mentioned actions on the accident site. Also we will trace all other
evidences of the accident by gathering all information of the accident." The
chairman indicated the AIB plans to release a preliminary first report in
English during Jan 9th 2020.
Local residents videotaped an
aircraft, presumably the UIA Boeing 737-800, while climbing out of Tehran,
losing height and impacting ground. The voice on the video says he was in
Ferdowsi Quarter of Shahriah (approx. position N35.5973 E51.0239 about 4nm
southsouthwest of Shahriah), the aircraft was on fire (which obviously prompted
the person to start filming), following some expressions of fear and asking for
divine support for the people the voice states he now needed to call the fire
department. The approximate position of the filmer is about 5nm northwest of the
crash site.
There are photos circulating on the Internet, mainly via
Iranian Student News Agency ISNA, who appear to show aircraft parts with
Shrapnell holes similiar to MH-17, see
Crash: Malaysia B772 near
Donetsk on Jul 17th 2014, aircraft was shot down from separatist controlled
ground. An original photos produced by Ebrahim Noroozi/Associated Press at
high resultion (3500x2333 pixel) reveals however, that the "punctures" are the
result of stones on the part of the fuselage and their shadows. As an exception
we make the original large photo availabe via a click at the usual image (width
750 pixel) in the photo section.
The point of first ground impact is at
position N35.5625 E51.1033, the field of debris expands south of that location -
which suggests, the aircraft had turned around and was moving in the direction
of the airport again.
Severe tensions developed between the USA and Iran
following a drone strike on Jan 3rd 2020 against an Irani military leader in
Baghdad (Iraq) on the order by the president of the USA, the Iran began counter
strikes firing missiles against US military bases in the evening of Jan 7th
2020.
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