Iran reveals reason for Ukrainian Boeing crash

The Ukraine International Airlines plane en route Tehran-Kyiv, which was shot down in January last year, was mistaken for an enemy target, according to the final report of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization on the investigation of the incident, Report informs referring to Tasnim news agency.

"The plane was mistaken for an enemy target by an air defense unit, and two missiles were launched," the document says.

The authors of the report note that neither the technical condition of the aircraft, nor the trajectory and altitude of its flight could be the reason for this.

It is noted that on the day of the crash, work was carried out to assess the risks and ensure the safety of civil aviation, however, due to an error that occurred, they were not effective enough. In particular, in assessing the risks, only constant factors were taken into account, excluding changing conditions.

In addition, the document provides a number of recommendations to prevent similar disasters in the future. In particular, these recommendations relate to the exchange of information between the military and civilian specialists, as well as the assessment of risks and measures in cases where the actions of the military could jeopardize the operations of civil aviation.

Ukraine International Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 crashed shortly after leaving Tehran in the early morning of Jan. 8, 2020. 176 people were killed - citizens of Iran, Ukraine, Canada, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Afghanistan. The catastrophe became the largest in terms of death toll in the entire history of Ukrainian aviation.