‘It’s why we didn’t hear anything’: Photo reveals where missile struck plane
New photos have been released showing where a missile struck a Ukraine International Airlines plane shortly after leaving Iranian capital Tehran, Ukraine’s top security official says.
Oleksiy Danilov revealed the Boeing 737 was struck beneath the cockpit following its departure from Imam Khomeini International Airport on Wednesday.
The 176 people on board, including 57 Canadians, all died on the flight headed for Kyiv.
An image released by the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine shows the plane’s soot-covered wreckage after being shot down.
The cockpit is split in two below the windscreen, with the bottom half missing.
“The photo shows the part where the missile hit,” Oleskiy Danilov told the BBC.
"It hit the cockpit from underneath. We think this is proof.
“It explains why we didn't hear anything from the pilots. They died immediately after the first hit.”
Another image shows what Ukranian officials believe is the remainder of a missile which downed flight PS752, while another shows a panel from the plane peppered with small holes.
Evidence was collected from the crash site prior to Iran’s announcement revealing Tehran took full responsibility for shooting down the flight.
Officials say they delayed release of the images publicly over fears they may be deported from Iran.
Ukraine on Saturday demanded that Iran punish those guilty for the downing of the flight and compensate victims while praising Tehran for cooperating with an "objective" investigation.
"We expect Iran ... to bring the guilty to the courts," Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky wrote on Facebook, calling also for the "payment of compensation" and the return of remains.
Tehran admitted on Saturday that it accidentally downed the flight.
Rouhani said Tehran "deeply regrets this disastrous mistake".
Tehran has invited the United States, Ukraine, Canada and others to join the crash investigation.
Kyiv said that Iran had cooperated with its experts and it expects an objective probe.
Tehran has handed Ukrainian experts enough data including "all the photos, videos and other materials" to show the “investigation will be carried out objectively and promptly", Zelensky's office said.
"The political part of the work is finished," it added.
Ukraine said on Friday its experts dispatched to Iran had been granted access to the flight's black boxes, debris from the plane, the crash site and to recordings of conversations between the pilot and the airport control tower.
Danilov told AFP Kyiv did not yet have evidence on where the missile was produced, only that it was "launched from Iranian soil”.
Zelensky said earlier that Ukraine hoped the inquiry would be pursued "without deliberate delay and without obstruction”.
He urged "total access" for the 45 Ukrainian experts, and in a tweet also sought an "official apology".
Iran’s actions ‘absolutely irresponsible’
UIA vice president Igor Sosnovsky told a news conference in Kyiv on Saturday that Tehran should have closed the airport due to the escalation of regional tensions following the US assassination of a top Iranian general.
"It's absolutely irresponsible," Sosnovsky said, accusing Iran of failing to protect ordinary citizens while "playing at war”.
"They were obliged to close the airport. Obliged! Then shoot as much as you like."
Iran said a missile operator shot down the Boeing 737 after mistaking it for a cruise missile at a time when threats were at the highest level.
The majority of passengers on UIA Flight PS752 from Tehran to Kyiv were Iranian-Canadian dual nationals but also included Ukrainians, Afghans, Britons and Swedes
Many in Kyiv have compared the crash to the 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17, killing 298 people over eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists are fighting government forces.
Moscow has denied the findings of international investigators that a Russian BUK missile hit the Malaysian flight.
"Iran has shown itself to be more civilised than Russia," pro-western Ukraine MP Volodymyr Ariev wrote on Facebook.
"Tehran has admitted its guilt in three days while Russia continues to try to get out of it.”
With AFP
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