Iran dismisses speculations Ukrainian flight taken down by missile

Iran’s minister of road and urban development has dismissed as "untrue" rumors that suggest the Wednesday crash of a Ukrainian airliner was because of a missile attack, as the incident coincided with the launch of Iran's missiles against a US base in Iraq.

According to Press TV, Mohammad Eslami said the Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed after encountering a technical malfunction.

Eslami said Iran will not hand over the black boxes recovered from the crash site to Boeing or any other countries.

According to the minister, Iranian technicians and experts from the American aerospace company Boeing will recover data from the black boxes in Iran.

"There are rumors that a terrorist attack, explosion or shooting at the plane may have caused the incident, but they are not true. Technical failure has been the cause of the incident," Eslami said.

"Had the rumors been true, the plane must have exploded up in the air, but that has not happened, because the plane caught fire due to technical failure. That first caused its communications and control systems to stop working, and subsequently resulted in its crash," he added.

These have been witnessed and confirmed by eyewitnesses as well, the minister said.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight, en route to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed hours after Iran fired missiles at bases housing US forces in Iraq, leading some to speculate that the plane may have been hit.

Meanwhile, foreign intelligence sources also believe that the crash - which killed all the 179 on board - was likely caused by a technical malfunction.

The crash comes at a difficult time for plane-maker Boeing Co, which has grounded its 737 MAX fleet after two crashes.

Ukraine said it was sending a team of experts to Iran to investigate.

Under international rules, responsibility for investigating the crash lies with Iran.

The three-year-old 737-800NG's last scheduled maintenance was conducted on Jan. 6, Ukraine International Airlines said.

SS