Iran seeks help with probe into airliner crash

Call comes amid Western claims plane was shot down, prompting Teheran denial

TEHERAN－Iran on Friday urged all parties involved to contribute to an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airliner that killed all 167 passengers and nine crew members on Wednesday.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported on Friday that the authorities have invited the jet's manufacturer, Boeing, to participate in the investigation.

Teheran called on the US company to send a representative to participate in the process of analyzing the data from the black-box flight recorder. It would also welcome the input of experts from those countries whose citizens died in the crash.

The United States National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on Thursday that it had received formal notification from Iran of the crash and it had "designated an accredited representative to the investigation of the crash".

The Ukrainian International Airlines 737-800 aircraft crashed near Teheran's Imam Khomeini International Airport shortly after takeoff on Wednesday. Among the dead were 82 Iranians, at least 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, and a number of citizens of Britain, Germany and Sweden.

The Boeing jet left the Iranian capital after 6 am, bound for the Ukrainian capital Kiev. An initial report by Iranian investigators said the airliner caught fire immediately before it crashed, citing witnesses.

The incident took place amid heightened tensions between the US and Iran. Iran on Tuesday night launched ballistic missile strikes on Iraqi military bases housing US troops, in retaliation for the US killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week.

US media reported on Thursday that US officials "increasingly believe" that the doomed plane was mistakenly shot down by Iran, while Iranian authorities insisted that a technical failure was the cause. They dismissed claims that a terrorist attack, an explosion or any form of firing at the plane may have caused the accident.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that his country is ready to join in the investigation, as set out under international law. He said a group of Ukrainian experts arrived in Iran on Wednesday for investigations at the crash site.

"We are making all the necessary efforts to find out the causes of this crash. ... Our goal is to find out the truth. This is the main thing," Zelensky said.

US, Canadian and British officials declared on Thursday that is "highly likely" that Iran shot down the civilian Ukrainian jetliner.

They said the missile strike could well have been a mistake amid rocket launches and high tensions throughout the region.

In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered similar statements. Morrison said it appeared to be a mistake. "All of the intelligence as presented to us today does not suggest an intentional act," he said.

It was not immediately clear how the US and its allies would react, as the region remained on edge after the killing of the Iranian general and Iran's retaliatory missile strikes. US troops are on high alert.

At the White House, US President Donald Trump suggested he believed Iran was responsible for the shooting down of the aircraft and dismissed Iran's initial claim that the crash was caused by a mechanical problem with the plane.

"Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side." Trump said, noting the plane was flying in a "pretty rough neighborhood".

A preliminary Iranian investigative report released on Thursday said the pilots did not make any radio calls for help and that the aircraft was trying to turn back to the airport when the burning plane went down.

IRNA quoted Hasan Rezaeifa, the head of the of Iranian civil aviation accident investigation commission, as saying that "the topics of rocket, missile or anti-aircraft systems are ruled out".

Agencies-Xinhua