Ceremony held for Ukrainian victims of Iran plane crash

Source:Reuters Published: 2020/1/19 22:23:42

People pay their respect during a candlelight vigil to honor victims of the Ukrainian passenger plane crash at Mel Lastman Square in Toronto, Canada, Jan. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Zou Zheng)

The bodies of the 11 Ukrainian citizens who died when a passenger plane was accidentally shot down by Iran this month were brought back to Ukraine on Sunday in a solemn ceremony at Kiev airport.

All 176 on board the Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kiev were killed when the Boeing 737-800 was shot down on January 8, at a time when Iran was on high alert for a US attack.

Most of those on board were Iranians or dual nationals. Canada had 57 citizens on board. Nine of the Ukrainian citizens were crew members.

With President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looking on, coffins draped in the Ukrainian flag were carried one by one from a Ukrainian military plane to a waiting hearse at Kiev's ­Boryspil airport.

Soldiers held up flags to represent the different nationalities of those who died. Relatives came to the airport carrying bunches of flowers. Airline staff were waiting on the tarmac.

Iran is seeking to examine the black boxes of the airliner, the official IRNA news agency reported, denying an earlier report that a decision had been taken to send the plane's recorders to Ukraine.

The plane disaster sparked unrest in Iran and added to international pressure on the country as it grapples with a long-running dispute with the US over its nuclear program and its influence in the region that briefly erupted into open conflict this month.



Posted in: EUROPE

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