Iran has acknowledged on Tuesday that its military fired two Russian anti-aircraft missiles against the Ukrainian plane that collapsed on January 8 next to the capital, Tehran, killing the 176 people on board.
During the three following days Iran blamed a technical malfunction and the engine fire for the tragedy, but changed its version after the United States and Canada (where 57 passengers came from) publicly blamed him for the incident.
The Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force then said that the operator of an air defense system had confused the Boeing 737-800 with an American cruise missile and shot it. He also announced arrests of those responsible.
Iran's air defenses were on high alert after firing missiles at two US bases in Iraq in retaliation for the death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a previous attack by US drones in Baghdad.
Iran's admission came after the release of videos on social networks that show how the plane was hit by missiles shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini airport.
The new report of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran identified the missiles fired at the plane as Russian-made TOR-M1.
However, the document does not admit that the missiles were responsible for the fall of the plane and simply said that "the impact of these missiles on the accident and the analysis of this action is under investigation."
In 2017, Iran received 29 TOR-M1 units from Russia under a contract worth an estimated 700 million dollars, according to the news agency The Associated Press. They are also known as SA-15 Gauntlet - code used by NATO - and have an extension of 3.5 meters.
They were designed during Soviet times to shoot down precision-guided airplanes and weapons and have a range of up to six kilometers in height (approximately 19,700 feet). TOR-M1 missiles explode near its target, knocking it down with shrapnel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1UHGvzcfPs
Unable to decipher the black boxes
The report also said that Iranian researchers had found it "impossible" to read the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, commonly known as black boxes, because they are technically too advanced.
Thus, after refusing to share this information with the United States and Ukraine, he has now asked to be sent "an updated team" because his technical means "have not responded positively so far."
In a phone call on Sunday, representatives from the five countries with victims - Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom - asked Iran to "move the black boxes to a facility with all the technology and experience required to download and analyze the data quickly and reliably without delay, "as established in international conventions.
On Saturday, the head of the accident investigation unit of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran, Hassan Rezaeifar, was quoted by the Tasnim news agency saying that the black boxes would be sent to Ukraine, but the next day, in statements to State news agency Irna said there were no such plans, BBC reported.