Passenger on doomed plane made chilling call to husband before crash
A widower has shared the last phone call he had with his wife who was a passenger on the Kiev-bound flight from Tehran which crashed killing all 176 people onboard, on Wednesday.
Hassan Shadkoo spoke to his wife of 10 years, Sheyda Shadkhoo, just 20 minutes before the plane took off.
Speaking to CBC News, Mr Shadkoo was visibly emotional when speaking of his wife. He said she was a chemist who “saved” his life.
Mr Shadkoo explained Sheyda, who lives with her husband in Canada, was in Iran visiting her mother.
“I spoke to her on WhatsApp, 20 minutes before the plane took off and she wanted me to assure her there wasn’t going to be a war,” Mr Shadkoo said in Toronto.
“I told her not to worry. Nothing's gonna happen,” he said to his wife before she said goodbye, saying she was being told to turn her phone off.
Mr Shadkoo then shared a social media post his wife set live before her death.
“She knew,” he said,
“I’m leaving, but it’s what is behind me that worries me. Behind me, behind me, I’m scared for the people behind me,” the poem says, according to Mr Shadkoo.
The CBC reporter then asked what was going through his head.
“I wish I didn’t exist right now,” he responded.
All 176 people on board the flight died when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran.
The crash was initially suspected to have been caused by mechanical issues, according to local news outlet ISNA.
Flight data from the airport showed a Ukrainian 737-800 flown by Ukraine International Airlines took off Wednesday morning, then stopped sending data almost immediately afterward, according to website FlightRadar24.
Since then, US and Canadian officials have said the plane was likely brought down accidentally by Iranian anti-aircraft missiles.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference there was evidence which indicates the plane was shot down by Iranian missiles.
“We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence,” Trudeau said.
“The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.”
Of the 176 people onboard, 63 of them were Canadian citizens.
The assessment that 176 people were killed as collateral damage in the Iranian-U.S. conflict cast a new pall over what had at first appeared to be a relatively calm aftermath following the US military operation that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
At the White House, President Donald Trump suggested he believed Iran was responsible for the shoot-down and dismissed Iran’s initial claim that it was a mechanical issue with the plane.
“Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side.” Trump said, noting the plane was flying in a “pretty rough neighbourhood.”
with Associated Press
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