Ukraine says Iran report ‘cynical’ bid to hide plane crash cause

Criticism comes after Iran’s aviation agency said the crash was a result of an error by air defence operator who mistook the plane as a hostile target.

Ukraine has criticised an Iranian report into the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane last year as a “cynical attempt” by the authorities in Tehran to hide the true reasons behind the crash. The Ukraine International Airlines’ flight 752 crashed minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital on January 8, 2020, at a time of heightened tensions during a regional confrontation with the United States. After three days, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) admitted that “human error” led to the plane being shot down with two ground-to-air missiles, killing all 176 people on board. In its final report on the cause of the crash, Iran’s civil aviation body on Wednesday blamed an error by an air defence operator.