TEHRAN — Spokesman for the secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council said on Friday that Iran has explained to the Ukrainian National Defense and Security Council secretary that the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran on January 8, 2020 was a result of human error. 

Keyvan Khosravi noted that in February 2020, when Oleksiy Danilov was Ukraine’s representative in the plane incident, he and his Iranian counterpart Admiral Ali Shamkhani had a meeting at the presence of the two countries’ aviation organizations’ representatives.

In that meeting, a comprehensive technical explanation was provided to Danilov and it was emphasized that the tragic incident was caused by “human error” and was “unintentional”.

“In a joint meeting with Danilov, Shamkhani, by pointing to the comprehensive and accurate research carried out by various expert groups of our country, categorically rejected any other possibility and hypothesis in this regard,” he said. 

Khosravi added, "Mr. Danilov's only specific request from Iran was to send the black box of the plane to Ukraine for re-reading, and he described this issue as a matter of honor for his country."

On Thursday, Danilov accused Iran of intentionally downing the Ukrainian plane. 

Referring to Danilov’s accusations, Khosravi said, “This could reinforce the suspicion that the remarks were custom-made to divert public opinion and promote controversy based on fake content.”

SA/PA