Iran to send black boxes from downed Ukrainian airliner to Kiev - report

Iran will send the black boxes from a downed Ukrainian airliner to Ukraine, Iran’s minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami said, according to the Tasnim news agency.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Jan. 8 by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people in what Tehran termed a “disastrous mistake” at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.

Ukraine initially lacked the technical capability to read the boxes but now says it has that ability, Eslami said. He said "the Americans" may have provided Ukraine with the necessary software and documents to read the black boxes of the 737-800 airliner made by U.S.-based Boeing Co.

The reading of the boxes will take place in coordination with the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization, Reuters reported.

“The necessary coordination is in this way that the reading of the black box be done in the country of Ukraine in the presence of representatives of ICAO,” Eslami said. “And if the conditions aren’t provided then at that time the reading will take place together in France.”

The fate of the cockpit voice and data "black box" recorders has been the subject of an international standoff eclipsed by the coronavirus crisis, which Iran says has also contributed to delays in a probe by Iran’s Air Accident Investigation Board.