REUTERS
The sky over Iran remained open both before and after the Ukrainian Boeing crashed.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has explained why Ukrainian air carriers had not earlier suspended flights in Iranian airspace due to recent developments in Iran.
"The events you are talking about, they unfolded yesterday and overnight. As of yesterday, there were no prerequisites to believe that this coincidence or these events would occur," he told a briefing on Wednesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
Honcharuk says relevant officials will be held responsible if the investigation finds that there were prerequisites for suspending flights.
At the same time, Europeiska Pravda reports that the sky over Iran remained open both before and after the Ukrainian Boeing crashed – a number of international air carriers were landing at and departing from Tehran airport.
From 3:00 to 4;00 local time, planes of three Turkish companies (Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, and AtlasGlobal), as well as Qatar Airlines, landed in Tehran, while another Turkish Airlines plane heading from Istanbul landed at 5:35.
Western air carriers that operate flights to Iran’s main airport also performed flights that night. At 2:43, a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt departed from Tehran, at 4:23 (with a 40-minute delay) – Austrian flight to Vienna. From 5:00 to 5:20 there were three flights of the Turkish and Qatari airlines.
Read alsoUkraine's Aviation Administration bans flights in Iranian airspace
Only on Wednesday afternoon, after the crash of the Ukrainian liner, Lufthansa canceled the Frankfurt-Tehran flight. Austrian has not yet announced such a decision. According to Vienna Airport, the Vienna-Tehran flight is set to be performed, but the departure has been delayed by six hours, while not being canceled.
Earlier today, UIA announced the suspension of Kyiv-Tehran flights for an indefinite period.
As UNIAN reported earlier, UIA flight PS752 bound for Kyiv, with 167 passengers and nine crew on board, crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran airport in the early hours of Wednesday, January 8.
Local emergency services say no one survived the crash.