Ukraine foreign minister says Iran cooperating in plane crash probe

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko says Iran has been cooperating with an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran, adding that experts from his country have been granted access to the black boxes.

Speaking at a televised briefing in Kiev on Friday, Prystaiko added that Ukraine sees "full cooperation" from Iran in probing the cause of the crash.

"Our team has now got access to the black boxes," he said, adding that Ukrainian experts have also obtained access to the plane's debris and the crash site.

Kiev has sent a team of nearly 50 experts to Iran to participate in the probe after Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 went down near Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board.

Despite claims by Canada, Britain, the United States and some other countries with a stake in the crisis-hit Boeing company that the plane was hit by an Iranian missile, probably by mistake, Prystaiko said Ukraine does not want to come to conclusions yet about the cause of the disaster.

The Ukrainian foreign minister said the issue of where the black boxes would be analyzed was still a matter of discussion, but noted that his country wants this to take place in Kiev.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Thursday, Head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Ali Abedzadeh dismissed as “illogical rumors" reports that the Ukrainian plane was brought down by missiles.

Iran’s civil aviation chief dismisses reports of Ukrainian plane being hit by missiles

Iran’s civil aviation chief rejects reports that the Ukrainian plane that crashed south of the capital Tehran was hit by missiles.

"From a scientific viewpoint, it is impossible that a missile hit the Ukrainian plane," he said, adding, "The plane caught fire three minutes into the flight, according to what the witnesses have reported and the data collected from the parts of the airplane.”

Iran’s top aviation official also addressed a press conference on Friday and said the results of a probe into the passenger plane crash will show what has happened, but Iran is certain no missile hit the aircraft.

Iran says is certain no missile hit Ukrainian plane before crash

Iran’s top aviation official says Tehran is certain no missile hit the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed in Tehran Wednesday.

“However, we can state it with certainty that no missile has hit this airplane. The plane was flying for over 1.5 minutes while it was on fire, and the crash site shows the pilot had decided to return [to the airport],” Abedzadeh said.

The Ukrainian foreign minister further told the briefing that he could not confirm evidence of bulldozers being at the site, adding there were various scenarios.

"We do not reject any of the versions. We want to establish the truth," Prystaiko said.

"At the moment, we have no reason to say that the Iranian authorities are not coordinating their activities or are not sufficiently interacting with Ukraine," he pointed out.

He noted that the plane had changed course after an incident but it was hard to comment about the reason.

Prystaiko said Ukrainian flights to Iran and Iraq were banned until the investigations are concluded.

Read more:

• Iran urges all parties involved to contribute to Ukrainian plane crash probe
• Trump gov't ties with Boeing run deep as US tries to blame Iranian missiles for Boeing crash

Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council also on Friday confirmed that Ukrainian investigators had access to the crash site of the crash and that they were happy with cooperation from the Iranian side.

Oleksiy Danilov told Swedish broadcaster TV4 that Ukraine had 45 people working in Iran and that they were currently pursuing seven different lines of investigation with no "priority version."

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk