Iranian investigators have requested that France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) read black boxes belonging to a Ukrainian jetliner that was downed in early January amid heightened tensions between the US and Iran.
Iran has claimed that Ukraine has been slow in responding to its offer to provide Kiev with the cockpit voice and flight data recorders and has thus decided that the devices will be sent to France instead.
The BEA said it has not formally received the request regarding the black boxes and is still in discussions with Iran, Canada and Ukraine over its potential involvement in the matter.
The incident occured hours after Iran struck two Iraqi bases that host American troops in response to the January 3 US-orchestrated assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. The ballistic missile strikes caused no deaths, as Iran had given Iraq advance warning.
According to a report by Reuters, Iran has also accused the US, where the 737-800 was designed and built, of not providing the necessary software to decipher the recorders. Meanwhile, Canada and Ukraine have accused Iran of stalling the investigation into the black boxes.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
