Iran confirms discovery of black boxes of crashed passenger plane

TEHRAN - Iranian Aviation Organization on Sunday confirmed the discovery of black boxes of crashed passenger plane which crashed last month with all 66 on board killed.

Reza Jafarzadeh, the manager of public relation of the organization, told reporters on Sunday that the black boxes were found on Saturday by Iran's rescue operators on the heights of Dena Mountain.

The boxes were ascended and "its authenticity is officially confirmed," Jafarzadeh said.

FDR and CDR boxes were delivered to the judiciary officials and, after legal processes, they will be availed to the Iranian Aviation Organization for decoding their data, he added.

Bahram Parsaee, a senior Iranian lawmaker, on Saturday said that the representative of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) would monitor the data decoding in the box.

On Feb 18, an ATR 72 turboprop aircraft belonging to Iran Aseman Airlines took off from the capital Tehran to Yasuj city in central Iran at 5:00 am (0130 GMT), and later crashed near Bideh village of the central city of Semirom.