TEHRAN, Iran, Jan.11
Trend:
Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company did not cancel any flights, following the escalation of tensions between the US and Iran, which eventually resulted in crash of a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane, Trend reports, via ILNA.
"We were obliged to carry out routine flight schedule and were unaware of these issues," Managing Director of Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company Siavash Amir Makri said, insisting that the country's air traffic control center should order flight cancellations.
“We cannot cancel or delay flights due to security conditions in the country unless ordered to do so by a higher level authority,” Makri said.
"We are obliged to carry out routine flight schedules, and we were unaware," Makri insisted.
A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane with 167 passengers (including Iranian and foreign citizens) and 9 crew members on board crashed Jan. 8, after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran.
The plane was heading for Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. The plane took off at 06:12 (GMT+3:30), and at 06:18, it lost connection with the dispatcher center. The plane crashed at 6:22.
Following the investigation, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran released a statement saying that the Ukrainian aircraft was unintentionally shot down by Iran, due to a human error.