Canada’s transportation minister said that he is not speculating about why a Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people went down in Iran.
The crash came after Iran fired missiles at two bases in Iraq housing U.S. soldiers. The jet, a Boeing 737-800, crashed shortly after it took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran early on Wednesday. Iranian authorities immediately said that the cause was a technical error, though some diplomats and aviation specialists have questioned that claim in light of the conflict.
Canadian Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said Wednesday he couldn’t yet attribute the crash to technical issues and noted that there were “a number of possibilities” related to the crash.
“We cannot speculate at this point as to the cause of the tragic air accident that occurred about two minutes after taking off,” Garneau said.
He said that satellite information suggested that the plane “took off in a normal fashion, climbing to altitude with a very standard departure.”
“However, we lost contact with it, suggesting that something very unusual happened, but we cannot speculate at this point,” Garneau continued. “There are a number of possibilities, and we will have to wait to obtain more information, perhaps from the black boxes or from other intelligence.”
Canadian minister of transport says “we cannot speculate at this point as to the cause” of last night’s plane crash in Tehran.
“We lost contact with it, suggesting that something very unusual happened—but we cannot speculate at this point.” https://t.co/KrKfRLcuFS pic.twitter.com/GgPF2CIezi
— ABC News (@ABC) January 8, 2020
The victims of the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said it was too early to make a determination about the cause of the crash.
“Our priority is to establish the truth and those responsible for this terrible catastrophe,” Zelensky said Wednesday on Facebook. “I implore you all to refrain from speculating and making uncorroborated theories in relation to the plane crash before any official statements are made.”
Iran has said it would not release the flight’s black box recorder to either the United States or manufacturer Boeing.
The crash came just hours after Iran launched more than a dozen missiles at U.S. forces at two Iraqi bases. Tensions had been rising in the region since the U.S. killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike, prompting the Tuesday missile attack from Iran.
