Iran agrees to hand over downed jet’s black boxes

Iran pledged Wednesday at a meeting of UN civil aviation agency to hand over black boxes from downed Flight 752 to Ukraine or France for analysis - a move welcomed by Canada and Ukraine.

Iran's representative at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, Farhad Parvaresh, said the devices would be sent to Kiev, sources confirmed to AFP.

They are expected to contain information about the last moments before the Ukraine International Airlines jetliner was struck by a missile and crashed shortly after taking off from the Tehran airport on January 8.

In the capital city Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne "welcomed" Iran's commitment to finally share the black boxes, saying this was "a step in the right direction by Iran."

"I take Iran at their word," he said, "but I would rather judge their actions once the black boxes are in Europe and we have our own experts who have been able to analyze [them]."

Ukraine's ambassador to Canada, Andriy Schevchenko, in a tweet said his country also "welcomes Iran's decision" to hand them over, adding that "if additional expertise is needed," the data recorders would be forwarded to France for analysis.

Canada repeatedly asked Iran to hand the plane's black boxes over to Ukraine or France for expert analysis. 

The disaster unfolded as Iran's defenses were on high alert in case the US retaliated to Iranian strikes hours earlier on American troops stationed in Iraq - which were themselves in response to the US assassination of a top Iranian commander.

AFP