Iran Releases Ukrainian Plane’s Flight Recorder Data

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Tooraj Dehqani released a series of data retrieved from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) in the black boxes of the Ukrainian passenger plane that was shot down by mistake near Tehran.

The black boxes had been taken to Paris for analysis.

Dehqani said it is not customary for the technical and expert data of aerial accidents to be made public in an independent report, but the Iranian president has ordered to release the information about the Ukrainian plane incident with full transparency.

The black boxes were read in France under the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran’s supervision and under the auspices of French authorities, and representatives from the US (manufacturer of the jetliner), Ukraine, France, Canada, the UK and Sweden were involved in the process, he added.

The incident investigation team has found out that the block box has stopped recording the flight data at 06:14:56 as a missile with proximity fuze had exploded, Dehqani said, noting that before the explosion, the airliner was flying in normal conditions.

The black box has recorded all sounds in the cockpit for 19 seconds after the missile explosion, he said, noting that a three-strong crew of pilots, including a flight instructor, were aware of the abnormal situation and had been trying to control and operate the plane until the last moment.

The flight instructor provided the necessary instructions, as the conversation suggests that the plane had encountered an electrical problem because the flight crew switched on the auxiliary power unit, he added.

The Iranian official noted that the flight instructor recognized that both jet engines had been running seconds after the explosion.  

There is no sound or sign from inside the passenger cabin, and the conversations and reaction of the flight crew indicates their physical health at those moments, he added.

“Considering that recording of the cockpit sounds had stopped 19 seconds after the explosion, and that the second missile had reached the plane at least 25 seconds after the first explosion, there was no analysis of the function and impacts of the second missile from the black box data,” Dehqani explained.

He also said that the first missile explosion had caused considerable damages to the plane and the shrapnel led to disconnection of the FDR and CVR after 19 seconds.

The Kiev-bound UIA Boeing 737 crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board, mostly Iranian and Canadian citizens.

Iran said the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile due to human error.