What does Iran say?
At a news conference on Friday, Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation (CAOI) chief Ali Abedzadeh repeated his view that a missile was not the cause of the crash. "The thing that is clear to us and that we can say with certainty is that this plane was not hit by a missile," he told reporters. "As I said last night, this plane for more than one and a half minutes was on fire and was in the air, and the location shows that the pilot was attempting to return." On Thursday, government spokesman Ali Rabiei accused the US and its allies of "lying and engaging in psychological warfare" in their speculation over the cause of the accident. An Iranian official told the BBC on Friday that there was documentation to prove that the plane had a mechanical issue before take-off. It was not signed off for flying, but Ukrainian airline officials had overruled these objections, the official said without giving further details.What has been said about a possible missile strike?
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had received intelligence from multiple sources indicating the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, adding that it was possible that this was unintentional. "This reinforces the need for a thorough investigation," he said. "Canadians have questions and they deserve answers." But he said it was too early to apportion blame or draw any conclusions, and refused to go into detail about the evidence. The Ukrainian flight was headed to the Canadian city of Toronto via the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. A vigil for the Canadian victims was held in the Canadian capital, Ottawa UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed Mr Trudeau's words and said Britain was working closely with Canada and other international partners affected by the crash. Speaking in Canada, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said British nationals were advised not to travel to Iran, "given the body of information that UIA Flight 752 was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, and the heightened tensions". The plane came down shortly after taking off from Tehran Newsweek quoted a Pentagon and senior US intelligence officials, as well as an Iraqi intelligence official, as saying they believed Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was hit by a Russian-made Tor missile. Video obtained by the New York Times appeared to show a missile streaking across the night sky over Tehran and then exploding on contact with a plane. About 10 seconds later, a loud explosion is heard on the ground. The plane, ablaze, continues to fly. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Western countries to share their information about the crash.What about the investigation?
Iran initially said it would not hand over the recovered "black box" flight recorders to Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, or to the US. This followed the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone attack on 3 January and the subsequent strikes against US bases in Iraq on Wednesday. However, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later confirmed it had been invited to take part in the investigation and would send a representative. Boeing said it would support the NTSB in the inquiry, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it had also been invited to the accident site by Tehran. France's BEA air accident agency said on Friday it had also been invited to take part in the investigation.DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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