xi's moments
Home | Europe

Ukraine International Airlines accuses Iran of irresponsibility

Xinhua | Updated: 2020-01-12 07:51

Ukraine International Airlines President Yevhenii Dykhne stands next to a map of flight PS-752's departure path at a news briefing about the crash of the Boeing 737-800 plane on the outskirts of Tehran, at the Boryspil International Airport, outside Kiev, Ukraine on Jan 11, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

KIEV -- Ukraine International Airlines Vice President Igor Sosnovsky accused Iran of irresponsibility for not closing the airport after the Iranian attacks on US forces in Iraq, reported Interfax Ukraine news agency on Saturday.

The Ukrainian airlines top management held a press conference, stating that the airliner took off according to the rules, and there was no deviation from the route and the responsibility for the tragedy entirely rested on the Iranian side.

"This is absolute irresponsibility. Because if you play war, then play as you want. But there are people around who had to be protected. If they shoot somewhere, they had to close the airport; they just had to. And then you shoot as much as you want," said Sosnovsky during the press conference in Kiev.

"It was the most ordinary Tehran-Kiev flight. People came, prepared the airplane, received permission to start the engines. They left the airport area according to the permissions of the air traffic controller," informed the airlines representative, underlining that the Iranian side permitted to operate the flight.

Earlier Saturday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that Iranian Armed Forces' internal investigation had concluded that unintentional missile strike due to human error caused the crash of the Ukrainian plane.

A total of 167 passengers and 9 crew members were killed on Jan 8 as the result of the plane crash of the Ukrainian Boeing 737, which was flying from Tehran to Kiev. The airplane crashed at approximately 6 am Tehran Time shortly after takeoff.

Global Edition
BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349