Iran Says It ‘Unintentionally’ Shot Down Ukrainian Jetliner

The statement came Saturday morning and blamed “human error” for the shoot down.

Debris as seen from the plane crash on the outskirts of Tehran on 8 January. 

(Photo: Mohammad Nasiri/AP) 

Iran, on Saturday, 11 January, confirmed that its military “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 aboard, Associated Press reported.

Soon after the announcement, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took to Twitter on Saturday morning to express his condolences and said that the country regretted this ‘disastrous mistake’.

The plane was shot down early on Wednesday, hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike in Baghdad. No one was wounded in the attack on the bases, according to AP.

Flight Hit Due to ‘Human Error’

A military statement carried by state media said the plane was mistaken for a “hostile target” after it turned toward a “sensitive military center” of the Revolutionary Guard.

The military was at its “highest level of readiness," it said, amid the heightened tensions with the United States.

“In such a condition, because of human error and in a unintentional way, the flight was hit,” the statement said. It apologized for the disaster and said it would upgrade its systems to prevent such “mistakes” in the future.

It also said those responsible for the strike on the plane would be prosecuted.

Iran's acknowledgement of responsibility for the crash is likely to inflame public sentiment against authorities after Iranians had rallied around their leaders in the wake of Soleimani's killing.

The general was seen as a national icon, and hundreds of thousands of Iranians had turned out for funeral processions across the country.

"A sad day," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. “Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster. Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.”

Denial From Iran

The jetliner, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukrainian International Airlines, went down on the outskirts of Tehran shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Iran had denied for several days that a missile caused the crash.

But then the U.S. and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believed Iran shot down the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, a conclusion supported by videos of the incident.

The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, at least 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials. The Canadian government had earlier lower the nation's death toll from 63, Associated Press reported.

(With inputs from AP.)