Boeing 737 crashes near Iran’s capital, kills all 176 on board

A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed minutes after takeoff from Tehran on 7 January, killing all on board, Iran state media reported.
The crash of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing US soldiers.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. However, both Ukrainian and Iranian officials said the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines plane was likely caused by “technical difficulties”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
“According to preliminary data, all passengers and crew members are dead”, he wrote on Facebook.
Rescuers in masks quickly arrived on the crash site, but all they could do was collect the bodies of the victims as it was soon clear there were no survivors.
“We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information”, Boeing said in a statement.
According to Iran’s state television, both black boxes from the airliner have been found. However, the head of Tehran’s civil aviation authority was quoted saying that the country would not give the black boxes back to Boeing, which led some experts to believe that the plane might have been shot.
Zelenskiy added he had instructed his prosecutor general to open a criminal investigation into the crash. He did not specify who it would involve, but announced he would send a team of experts to Iran:
“Our priority is to establish the truth and those responsible for this terrible catastrophe”, he said.
Ukranian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk announced a ban on flights through Iranian airspace by its airlines from tomorrow.