After nearly a month of deception, audio tapes released on Feb. 3 confirm that Ukrainian flight 752 was shot down by an Iranian missile shortly after takeoff back on Jan. 8.
According to The New York Times, on Jan. 16 Iran blamed the strike on human error, stating the aircraft had taken a sharp, unexpected turn that brought it near a sensitive military base.
Later, Iranian officials walked back that claim. Iranian government officials eventually came out to apologize for the tragedy that left 176 passengers dead, turning the blame towards American “adventurism” as the cause. Iran’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif tweeted “human error at a time of crisis caused by U.S. adventurism led to disaster.”
During the investigation period, Imam Khomeini Airport was reluctant to cooperate, failing to share the audio interactions between flights. It was not until Feb. 3 that these tapes were uncovered and released to the public, revealing that another flight reported seeing “flares on route, as if from a missile.” Following this radio interaction, air traffic control attempted to contact flight 752 shortly after its takeoff. There was no response.
After the recording transcript was leaked to a Ukranian news site, Iran ceased all cooperation. Ukraninan President Volodymyr Zelenzky verified the authenticity of the recording. Iran was unable to refute this claim.
Although Iran was initially cooperative, Zelenzky noted that military officials — who knew exactly what happened — continued to give false statements regarding the events in an effort to suppress the truth.
Zelenzky also made it very clear that Ukraine got hold of these transcripts independently; the audio recordings were not handed over by the Iranian government.
After days of noncooperation the Iranian government made an offer of $80,000 to the families of each Ukranian victim. Zelensky declined this offer, as it was “insufficient.”
