Free Republic

The black box of a Ukrainian passenger airliner mistakenly shot down over Iran last month is damaged and Iran will not hand it over to another country despite pressure for access, state media quoted top Iranian ministers as saying on February 19. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that he had "impressed upon" Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that a complete and independent investigation into the shooting down of the airliner had to be carried out. Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was brought down after it took off from Tehran on January 8, killing everyone on board....

One of the passengers on the Ukrainian jet downed by Iranian missiles earlier this month was a businesswoman who was the boss of two companies cited in a UN report for links to the shadowy arms trade supplying the protracted civil war in Libya. Olena Malakhova, 38, had been allocated a place in the second row of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 from Tehran to Kiev, according to a seating plan of the aircraft seen by CNN. She was one of only two Ukrainian passengers on the plane, which crashed shortly after takeoff from the Iranian capital on January 8,...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday appeared to cast blame on President Trump and the US for the downing by Iran of a Ukrainian jetliner that was allowed to take off from Tehran following an Iranian airstrike on US troops in Iraq just hours earlier. “I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” Trudeau told Global News television.

A senior Iranian commander who admitted to Iran's role in the recent downing of a Ukrainian airplane bragged in 2016 that even the youngest Iranian officers have unilateral authority to conduct strikes like the one that downed the Ukrainian plane, killing every civilian aboard, according to video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. ... "Ahead of time, scenarios have been planned and units have been given the authorization," Hajizadeh said in the 2016 interview, which was independently translated for the Free Beacon. "Look, when it comes to the shooting of defensive missiles, if an enemy aircraft is incoming, why would...

Iran officials acknowledged Saturday that they accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 people aboard. Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division, told state TV that his unit accepts “full responsibility” for shooting the down aircraft minutes after it took off Wednesday from Tehran’s international airport. He said that when he learned about the downing of the plane, “I wished I was dead.” The aircraft, which was heading to Kiev, was shot down hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. and...

Iran admits IRGC shot down Flight 752, ending regime's Soleimani PR bonanza It was a short-lived honeymoon for the Islamic Republic regime — a rare wave of popular support, drowned out by a bigger tide of government neglect and recklessness. Much as Iran's authorities may hate admitting the destruction of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 to other governments, they are almost certainly more concerned about the reaction from their own people. The regime's hopes of turning the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani into a moment of renewal for its flagging fortunes were destroyed along with Flight PS752. From the point...