TEHRAN: Iranian search and rescue teams have found the black boxes from a Ukrainian airliner that crashed Wednesday soon after takeoff from Tehran’s main airport, the country’s civil aviation authority said.
“The two black boxes of the Ukranian 737 aeroplane that crashed this morning have been found,” said the authority’s spokesman, Reza Jafarzadeh, according to semi-official news agency ISNA.
The airplane carrying at least 176 people had taken off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in the Iranian capital. The crash is suspected to have been caused by mechanical issues, Iran state TV reported, without elaborating.
ll crew and passengers on board the Ukrainian airliner in Iran were dead, a Ukraine foreign ministry official confirmed, citing information from the carrier.
The airline has suspended flights to Tehran indefinitely. Ukrainian prime minister Oleksiy Valeriyovych Honcharuk later on Wednesday said a total flight ban to Iran would start on Thursday, January 9.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who canceled his trip to Oman, expressed his condolences to relatives of those killed, adding embassy officials were clarifying circumstances of the tragedy.
Eleven Ukrainian citizens perished in the Iran plane crash, including nine crew, the Ukraine Security Council said. Ukraine foreign minister Vadym Volodymyrovych Prystaiko added there were also three Britons, 10 Swedes, 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians aboard the ill-fated flight.
(Agencies)
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