TEHRAN, Iran: A misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between the troops and their commanders, and a decision to fire without authorization led the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to shoot down a Ukrainian plane in January, killing all 176 people on board, according to a report.
The report released Saturday afternoon by the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization comes months after the January 8 accident near Tehran. Authorities initially denied responsibility, then changed course days after western nations presented extensive evidence that Iran shot down the plane.
The report may indicate a new phase in the investigation of the accident. The plane’s black box flight recorder will be sent to Paris, where international investigators will be able to examine it. Public opinion remains low on the Iranian government as it faces crushing sanctions from the United States and vast internal economic problems.
The shootdown occurred the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on US soldiers in Iraq in response to a US drone attack that killed General Guard Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3.
The civil aviation report says a change in the “alert level of Iran’s air defense” allowed air traffic to resume.
The report details the times when the shootdown of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 could have been prevented.
The report says the ground-to-air missile battery targeting the Boeing 737-800 had been relocated and was not properly reoriented.
Those handling the missile battery were unable to communicate with their command center, mistakenly identified the civilian flight as a threat and fired twice without obtaining approval from senior officials, according to the report.
“If each had not arisen, the plane would not have been the target,” the report says.
Western intelligence officials and analysts said Iran shot down the plane with a Russian-made Tor system, known to NATO as the SA-15. In 2007, Iran received the delivery of 29 Tor M1 units from Russia under a contract worth approximately $ 700 million. The system is mounted on a tracked vehicle and carries a radar and an eight-missile package.
The report does not say why the Guard moved the air defense system.
The report notes that the Ukrainian flight had done nothing out of the ordinary.
“At the time the first missile was fired, the plane was flying at a normal altitude and trajectory,” the report says.
The plane had just taken off from Imam Khomeini International Airport when the first missile exploded, possibly damaging the ship’s radio equipment, according to the report. The second missile probably directly hit the plane. The videos show the plane exploding in a fireball before crashing into a playground and farmland on the outskirts of Tehran.
The report totally blames the crew for the missile battery.
Iran has repeatedly delayed the release of the plane’s so-called black box, which includes data and communication from the cockpit before the shootdown. The United States, under international regulations, has the right to be part of the investigation because the plane involved was a Boeing.
Iran will send the black box to France on July 20, and Ukrainian and French experts will examine it, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. The Iranian authorities did not have the equipment to read the data from the box.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from various countries, including 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians, including many Iranians with dual nationality, and 11 Ukrainians. The route was popular with those traveling to Canada.
After Soleimani’s murder in the U.S. drone attack, millions went out to funeral processions in his honor across Iran. His funeral, which saw a stampede that killed dozens, occurred when the Guard shot down the plane, fueling public anger at a paramilitary force that only responds to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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