Iran claims "black box" damage (WSJ)
Iran Says Airliner’s Black Box Damaged
Iran said the black box of a Ukrainian airliner it mistakenly shot down is significantly damaged, complicating an already protracted investigation of an incident that sparked domestic protests and angry calls for greater government accountability.
After Iran’s military admitted to shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 and killing all 176 people on board on Jan. 8, Iranian officials indicated the country would send the flight data recorders recovered from the jet’s wreckage to another country—likely Ukraine or France—where the data could be downloaded in what they called a “neutral” laboratory.
However, Tehran has since refused to hand over the black boxes, despite admitting it doesn’t have the necessary technology to assess them.
Instead, Iranian officials asked the U.S. or France to transfer to Iran the equipment needed to download the data—an unusual request that wasn’t met.
On Wednesday, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said the box was too damaged to read and needed to be repaired first. “The black box of the Ukrainian plane has been considerably damaged,” Mr. Hatami said, according to the IRNA state news agency, adding that Iranian defense authorities had been asked to help repair the box.
“The plan is to first restore the black box and then read it,” he said.
Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, who recently visited Iran to discuss the investigation, said on Wednesday that Ukraine is technically ready to analyze the black boxes and Kyiv continues negotiations with Tehran.
“The decoding of the ‘black boxes’ is an important stage in the investigation as it may well provide additional information,” Mr. Danilov said in a statement. “We are committed to fully uncovering all of the details that resulted in this catastrophe. The investigation will continue until the causes are fully understood.”
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In today's WSJ (claiming fair use derivative from Annex 13, Chicago Convention of 1944).
Interesting, as to how how much credibility is gained, or lost, by this new Iranian assertion.