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<\/div>Dubai – A Ukrainian airliner was on fire immediately before it crashed southwest of Tehran, killing all 176 on board, according to an initial report by Iranian investigators.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800, flying to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed shortly after taking off on Wednesday from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The report by Iran’s civil aviation organisation cited witnesses on the ground and in a passing aircraft flying at high altitude as saying the jet was on fire while still aloft.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old jet, which had its last scheduled maintenance on Monday, encountered a technical problem shortly after take-off and started to head toward a nearby airport before it crashed, the report said.<\/p>\n
The technical problem was not specified in the report, which also said that there was no radio communication from the pilot and that the aircraft disappeared from radar at 8 000 feet (2 440 m).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A Canadian security source told Reuters there was evidence one of the jet’s engines had overheated.<\/p>\n
The crash happened hours after Iran launched missile attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq, leading some to speculate that the plane may have been hit.<\/p>\n
The initial assessment of Western intelligence agencies was that the plane had suffered a technical malfunction and had not been brought down by a missile, five security sources – three Americans, one European and the Canadian – who asked not to be named, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
In Kiev, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the government was considering several possible causes of the plane crash.<\/p>\n
In a television statement, Zelenskiy asked people to refrain from speculation, conspiracy theories and hasty evaluations regarding the crash. He also declared January 9 a day of national mourning.<\/p>\n
He said that he would speak by telephone with the Iranian president to step up cooperation into the reason for the crash.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian airliner took off from the Tehran airport at 6:12 a.m. local time and was given permission to climb to 26 000 feet, the report said. It crashed six minutes later near the town of Sabashahr.<\/p>\n
Bodies and body parts recovered from the site of the crash have been taken to the coroner’s office for identification, the report said.<\/p>\n
Smouldering debris, including shoes and clothes, were strewn across a field where the plane crashed on Wednesday, where rescue workers in face masks laid out scores of body bags.<\/p>\n
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Onboard were 146 Iranians, 10 Afghans, 11 Ukrainians, five Canadians and four Swedes, the report said, but noted some may have held citizenship of other countries.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian authorities have said those on board included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, and 11 Ukrainians.<\/p>\n
The Tehran-Toronto via Kiev route was a popular for Canadians of Iranian descent visiting Iran, in the absence of direct flights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nReuters
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