Year in review: 176 people killed in plane crash in Iran

TEHRAN, IRAN – It was a start to 2020 that shocked many around the world.

Nearly a week after the U.S. launched a military strike against Iran on Jan. 2, a passenger airplane heading for Ukraine, and eventually Canada, was shot down.

Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 crashed minutes after taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 on board.

The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members from different nations. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said that there were 82 Iranians, 55 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians on board — the Ukrainian nationals included two passengers and the nine crew. There were also 10 Swedish, four Afghan, three German and three British nationals, he said.

Canada Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne issued a statement, calling the incident tragic and saying, “Our hearts are with the loved ones of the victims, including many Canadians. I have been in touch with the government of Ukraine. We will continue to keep Canadians informed as the situation evolves.”

“On behalf of the Government of Canada, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to those who have lost family, friends, and loved ones in this tragedy. Our government will continue to work closely with its international partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated, and that Canadians’ questions are answered,” said Justin Trudeau in a statement.

Hitting home

As the days passed and a list of those on the plane crash was released, many across Canada were hit with the loss of a loved one.

The Iranian community in Edmonton was one of the hardest impacted in the country, as it was confirmed 27 people from the community were on the plane.

Premier Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney attended a memorial service held by Edmonton’s Iranian Heritage Society.

WATCH: Memorial service for Iran plane crash victims

Many other communities across the country also were impacted.

“I’m never going to forget her laugh, her smile, and the little girl — she was so adorable,” Manijeh Ghotbi, who worked with Bahareh Eghbalian, said through tears.

“We have learned, with profound sorrow, that several U of T students were among the 176 people killed in the crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in Tehran, Iran,” U of T President Meric Gertler said in a statement.

Payman Paseyan, a member of the Iranian-Canadian community in Edmonton, said his friend Pedram Mousavi, an engineering professor at the University of Alberta, died along with his wife Mojgan Daneshmand and their daughters Daria Mousavi and Dorina Mousavi.

“They had two young girls with them. I can’t imagine what was going through their mind,” Paseyan told The Canadian Press.

Fatemah Pasavand is a student at Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver and was going to turn 18 this month, he said.

“The dad was wishing he was in the airplane instead of them,” he said. “He had a hard time realizing he lost his family … He had prepared a special meal that his daughter had asked for when she came back.”


MORE ABOUT THE VICTIMS:


Mourners also gathered at more candlelight vigils across Canada Jan. 9, to grieve the 176 victims of a plane crash on the outskirts of Tehran.

The following days: Start of the investigation

The investigation into what caused Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 to crash quickly hit a roadblock after initial reports said Iran would not be releasing the plane’s black boxes.

READ MORE: Investigating the Ukrainian Airlines crash outside Tehran

The crew of a Ukrainian jetliner never made a radio call for help and was trying to turn back for the airport when the burning plane went down, an initial Iranian investigative report said on Jan. 9. Ukraine, meanwhile, said it considered a missile strike as one of several possible theories for the crash, despite Iran’s denials.

WATCH: Investigation into cause of deadly plane crash underway

Two U.S. officials also said Thursday it was “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile downed a Ukrainian jetliner.

The crash came just a few hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops amid a confrontation with Washington over the U.S. drone strike that killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general last week. The officials, citing U.S. intelligence, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

President Donald Trump suggested at the time that he believed Iran was responsible. He wouldn’t directly lay the blame on Iran, but dismissed claims that it was a mechanical issue and denied any U.S. responsibility.

Meanwhile, Iran’s civil aviation authority reportedly said it had invited Canadian investigators from the Transportation Safety Board to join a growing team probing the plane crash outside Tehran that killed 138 people believed bound for Canada.

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About two and a half hours before the plane took off, the Federal Aviation Administration issued emergency orders that prohibited American pilots and airlines from flying over Iran, the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman.

The notices warned that heightened military activity and political tension in the Middle East raised “an inadvertent risk” to U.S. aircraft “due to the potential for miscalculation or misidentification.”

Foreign airlines aren’t bound by FAA directives, but they often follow them. In this case, however, several large international carriers including Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways and Aeroflot continued to fly in and out of Tehran after the missiles were launched, after the FAA warning, and after the Ukrainian jetliner crashed, according to data from Flightradar24, which tracks flights around the world.

Early Friday Jan. 10, Iran denied Western allegations that one of its own missiles downed the jetliner that crashed early Wednesday outside Tehran, hours after Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq to avenge the killing of its top general in an American airstrike last week.

RELATED: Verified videos show plane in Iran impacted before downing

U.S. and Canadian accident investigators were uncertain how much access they will get to evidence that could prove whether Iran shot down the passenger jet, and there were fears that the probe might already be compromised by the removal of wreckage from the crash site.

Clues to whether the Boeing 737 was brought down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, as the U.S. and its allies allege, could be extracted from its black box recorders, which could capture the sound of an explosion, and from an examination of its pieces for such things as shrapnel holes, burn marks or explosive residue.

Later on Jan. 10, Iranian state TV cited a military statement, saying the country ‘unintentionally’ shot down the jetliner.

RELATED: ‘Just an overall waste:’ Friends, family react to news jet was mistakenly shot down

On Jan. 14, Canadian investigators got their first chance to visit the crash site.

Iran’s judiciary said at the time arrests had been made for the accidental shootdown of the plane.

The announcement came amid an upswell of anger and protests by Iranians in recent days over the downing of the jetliner last Wednesday and apparent attempts by senior officials in Iran to cover up the cause of the crash.

Canada and other countries demanded compensation from Iran for the families of people killed.

That was one of five elements in an agreement that came out of a meeting Canada hosted in London, with representatives from Britain, Sweden, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Iran said it sent the black box flight recorders from the jetliner to Ukraine for further analysis on Jan. 18.

The following day, the Iranian official leading the investigation appeared to backtrack on plans to send the flight recorders abroad for analysis.

Hassan Rezaeifar was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency as saying “the flight recorders from the Ukrainian Boeing are in Iranian hands and we have no plans to send them out.”

RELATED: Iran has asked for technical help on black boxes in downed plane

On Jan. 21, Iran acknowledged that its armed forces fired two Russian anti-aircraft missiles at the plane.

Two days later, the Transportation Safety Board said it would deploy a second team of investigators to probe the black boxes of the Ukraine flight.

The investigation

In February, Canada’s foreign minister asked for international help to pressure Iran to give up the black boxes recovered from the wreckage of Flight PS752.

Francois-Philippe Champagne said he and Transport Minister Marc Garneau had met the leaders at the International Civil Aviation Organization to try to break a logjam over the data recorders.

Canada and Ukraine flatly rejected a report in April that suggested the regime was seeking immunity from future legal action after shooting down the passenger jet in January.

The following month, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Canada wanted Iran to explain why it hadn’t yet handed over the black boxes from the Ukrainian jetliner.

In mid-July, Garneau said Canada was eager for Iran to follow through on a new pledge to send the black boxes from the downed Ukraine Airlines jetliner to France.

RELATED: Iran sends recorder from downed Ukrainian jetliner to France

In August, an Iranian official said some data, including a portion of cockpit conversations, had been retrieved.

A couple months later, in October, families and loved ones of those killed urged Canada to impose so-called Magnitsky sanctions that would target those directly responsible.

Most recently, ahead of December’s holiday season, Canada’s special adviser on the plane crash recommended special attention be paid to those who lost loved ones in the tragedy.

-with files from NEWS 1130, 660 NEWS, CityNews, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press

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