Iran says it cannot transfer the flight recorders from the Ukrainian passenger plane, shot down outside of Tehran earlier this year, to France due to COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
“The black boxes have been promised to be transferred to France, but Iran is saying that they can’t do it right now because of COVID,” said Trudeau, who was providing his regular update on Canada’s fight against COVID-19.
“Obviously even though there is a pandemic we continue to work on this issue…We’re going to continue to put pressure on the Iranian regime along with our international partners to get answers, to get justice, to get compensation for the families.”
On Jan. 8, Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 was hit by two missiles, launched by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – which Iran initially covered up – shortly after taking off from Tehran airport.
All 176 people on board died, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents, and a number of students and academics returning to Canada from winter break. In total, 138 passengers were bound for Canada.
The Tehran-Kyiv route was often used as the first leg of trips from Iran to Canada, as there are no direct flights between the two countries. The incident occurred just after Iran had launched missiles at two American military bases in Iraq, in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general, a few days earlier.
Trudeau said that former public safety minister Ralph Goodale, who was appointed the federal government’s special adviser on the file in March, also continues to be “closely engaged” with the matter.
“We know that there’s a lot more work to do,” he said Tuesday.
Iran was one of the country’s hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and initially downplayed the crisis for weeks. A number of top officials contracted the virus.
Over 9,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Iran, and 192,439 cases have been reported.
