Iran to send Ukraine airliner black boxes to France

Iran told the U.N.’s aviation agency that it would send black boxes from a downed Ukrainian jetliner to Paris for analysis, once countries involved in the investigation agree, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The other countries involved are Ukraine, Canada and the United States. Canada previously pressed Iran to send the black boxes to France for analysis.

Iran has refused to hand over the flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines flight, which was shot down on Jan. 8 near Tehran by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, killing 176 people including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

In March, Iran told the U.N.’s aviation agency that it would send the black boxes to Ukraine.

But on Wednesday, a representative from Iran told a virtual meeting of the agency’s governing council that Tehran would now send the heavily damaged recorders to France’s BEA air accident investigation agency.

"Iran said they will send them to Paris soon subject to agreement of the states involved in the investigation," said one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Iran made a commitment in March. They showed an openness to transferring the black boxes but we want to see concrete action on their part to see it through," Reuters cited her as saying.