European Union calls for independent investigation into Ukrainian accident
The accident killed 176 people
"It is very important for us that the investigations take the form of an independent and credible investigation that is carried out in a manner commensurate with the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization," European Commission spokesman Stephane de Kersemaeker told reporters.
This European call for an independent investigation comes after Western governments indicated that the plane was shot down, possibly accidentally, by an Iranian missile.
Iran said Friday that it could confirm that the Ukrainian Boeing plane, which crashed Wednesday near Tehran, "was not hit by a missile."
"One thing is certain: this plane was not hit by a missile," said Ali Abedzadeh, head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization.
The Iranian official pointed out that the completion of the investigation of the plane may take one or two years, indicating that loading the memory unit from the two black boxes that were recovered from the crash site may take a month or two.
According to the official, Iran prefers to download the data of the black boxes themselves, but it may send them to Russia, Canada, France or Ukraine if necessary, given that Tehran has agreements with these countries.
Iran had denied at the time of government spokesman, Ali Rabei, that the Ukrainian plane that crashed near Tehran had been hit by a missile, in the midst of evidence and a video showing it was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky said on Friday that he does not rule out the possibility of a Ukrainian International Airlines plane crashing in Iran this week as a result of a missile, which killed all those on board, but this has not been confirmed so far.
The Ukrainian president added that he will discuss with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the investigation later Friday, according to the "Associated Press".
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that the Ukrainian plane was likely shot down by an Iranian missile, according to Canadian and other sources.