REUTERS

Canada and several other countries whose citizens died as a result of the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane flight PS752 near Tehran have asked Iran to postpone the decryption of flight recorders to a later date.

As explained by the Canadian Transport Safety Council on Sunday, April 12, the decision was caused by restrictions imposed to combat the spread of COVID-19 and making it difficult for experts to arrive, Deutsche Welle's Russian service reports.

Iran contacted interested parties a few days earlier to find out when experts would arrive to help decrypt data from black boxes. In response to a request, Canada assured the Islamic Republic's authorities that it is looking forward to downloading and deciphering data.

Видео дня

However, this requires the actual presence of experts from several countries so the decryption should be postponed until there are sufficient conditions for a safe trip, the Canadian side said.

Read alsoUkraine not to let Iran shun responsibility for downing of UIA flight PS752 – FM Kuleba

As UNIAN reported earlier, Kyiv-bound UIA flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport in the early hours of January 8. It was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. Two passengers and the crew members were Ukrainians. There were also 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and the United Kingdom each. There were no survivors.

On January 11, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani officially admitted that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by accident as a result of a "human error" and that those responsible would be held accountable.

On February 2, intercepted communications between Tehran Airport's air traffic control tower and the second pilot of Iran's Aseman Airlines flight at the time of the crash of flight PS752 were released by TSN.Tyzhden. Tehran blamed the Ukrainian authorities for leaking what it described as confidential evidence, and said it would no longer share investigation materials with Ukraine.

On February 14, the Iranian Foreign Minister said Iran did not plan to hand the black boxes over but it would not decrypt their data without the participation of the parties concerned.

On March 23, representatives of Ukraine and Iran agreed on a further interaction algorithm to establish the causes of the tragedy and bring the perpetrators to justice.