2. IRAN’S INVESTIGATION AND OBFUSCATIONS

2. IRAN’S INVESTIGATION AND OBFUSCATIONS

2.1 Failure to Secure the Crash Site

Securing the crash site is one key step in any air crash investigation. In the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, 400 square kilometers were completely isolated and investigated, allowing tiny parts from a Toshiba record-player or small shreds from a shirt to be found and used as evidence to help find the perpetrators of the bombing. Similarly, 50 square kilometers were enclosed around the MH17 crash site in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 despite its location in an active conflict zone, and the wreckage was thoroughly investigated by the international technical and criminal investigation team. In other cases of air disasters, such as Flight 302 of the Ethiopian Airlines, similar protocols were implemented [32].

Following the downing of flight PS752 and its crash in Shahedshar, Tehran, these protocols were not followed whatsoever. Based on a report available to the Association, the first people who reached the crime-scene were residents of the villages of Khalajabad, Ferdowsieh and Adran. Some thefts have been reported in those early minutes, but firefighters arrived from Saba Battery’s Company and Sabashahr at 6:45AM. This was followed by the arrival of police forces at 6:50AM, who were responsible for securing the area. Due to the scale of the disaster, more firefighters were called in for help and rescue workers were also deployed around 7:30AM, meanwhile the crime scene was full of unidentified people, many of whom were security officers in plain clothes.

The road to the site was closed and the present forces were assigned various responsibilities: Firefighters and Red Crescent workers were in charge of collecting the bodies, and police officers were collecting the belongings of the passengers and crew. In photos and videos of the site, police officers are seen searching through passengers' belongings, while many ordinary people are still present at the scene. All the passengers' belongings, including luggage, handbags, healthy or damaged cell phones, money, and valuables, were reportedly handed over to the law enforcement, most of which were confiscated or stolen and never returned to their families.

About 11:00AM, less than five hours after the disaster, bulldozers and riot police arrived in the area. From available photos at least two bulldozers can be seen moving parts of the plane, and anything left on the ground (Figure 2-1 and Figure 2-2).

Based on "The Secret of Romeo's Death", Ukrainian documentary regarding the Flight PS752, Ukrainian investigators were escorted out of the crash site once they deduced that the downing of PS752 was caused by a surface to air missile [33].1

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igDAFtwPe-s

Figure 2-1. Crash site a few hours after the downing - bulldozers removing wreckage

Figure 2-2 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Specialist at the scene - bulldozer on site

Some families who were at the scene complained about the presence of bulldozers, but the authorities did not pay attention. The aircraft wreckage was moved to an open-air location, visible via Google Maps, in IKA airport near Salam International Terminal and it appears still being kept there.2 While in many air accidents, aircraft parts are re-assembled by investigators as part of their inquiry this was never done for PS752.

On the second and third days after the disaster, as can be seen in (Figure 2-3) the crash site was open to the public, and not only ordinary people were walking around, but garbage collectors

2 At the time of publishing this report, the PS752 wreckage is still located at 35°25'57.6"N 51°08'03.8"E in IKA airport.

were also there taking the rest of the airplane parts with them. There were rumors that this happened even on the day of the downing and many pieces were taken by ordinary people.

Figure 2-3. Day 2 and 3, the crash site is still open to the public.

Figure 2-4 shows a health insurance card of one of the victims that was found by strangers at the crash site seven months after the disaster. Travelers' belongings remained in the area for months. Reports indicate that municipal officials went to the area at least three times to set them on fire.

Figure 2-4. Health card of the victim. Found 7 months later at the crash site

2.2 Delay in Analysis of Black Boxes

Analyzing flight recorders, also known as black boxes, is one of the first steps in an air crash investigation. This includes the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR).

As an example, the black boxes of Pan American Airlines flight 103, which crashed in 1988 due to a bombing, and Flight 302 of Ethiopian Airlines, which crashed due to a technical issue, were found and examined in less than five days [34; 35]. In the case of Air India flight 182, which was bombed in 1985, submersibles searched 2000m deep in the Atlantic for 32 days to find the black boxes [36]. Even in the case of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down by separatists in eastern Ukraine, it took only four days for the separatist forces to hand over the black boxes to the investigators [37]. No information is available on the Flight IR655 black boxes that were shot down by the Americans in 1988. Some believe they are still deep in the Persian Gulf, and some think that they were discovered and examined by the United States.

Two days after the downing of Flight PS752, Iran’s state television showed the black boxes and confirmed that they are undamaged [38].

Contrary to the initial promise made to the Ukrainian delegation and the Ukrainian ambassador to Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran did not hand over the black boxes. Instead, they requested other countries to provide equipment in order to examine the black boxes in Iran [39]. Other countries believed that it was not possible to transfer the required equipment to Iran. In this conflict, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran publicly stated that they do not have the technical capacity to read the black boxes, but they will not hand them over either.[40] In February, Iran's defence minister said that the black boxes had been damaged and that the Ministry of Defence was repairing them, without any transparency on what the repair process can look like [41]. On March 11, Canada's Minister of Transportation requested at the ICAO meeting that the black boxes be delivered, and the Islamic Republic of Iran promised to do so within fourteen days [42].

Fourteen days passed, but Iran did not hand over the black boxes. Neither the ICAO reacted, nor did Canada’s Minister of Transportation. As time went on, the narrative within the Islamic Republic of Iran changed and the delay in handing over the black boxes was claimed to be due to travel restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an email, Iran requested the transportation safety organizations’ representatives of the affected countries to attend the download of the flight recorders on Europe, and those countries with Covid-19 and travel restrictions did not see it as a possibility [43].

On June 29, Canada's Foreign Minister and the Foreign Minister of Iran had a telephone conversation [44]. As a result, the 20th of July was announced as the date for the delivery of black boxes. Prior to handing over the black boxes, Tehran military prosecutor said that the black boxes were considerably damaged, and by July 20th, more than seven months after the crime, it was still unclear whether the Islamic Republic of Iran had the intention to hand them over.

On July 20, the black boxes were downloaded at the laboratory of France's BEA air accident investigation agency without any problems [45]. Less than a month later, a selective and incomplete report of this readout was published. It was reported that the FDR stopped functioning immediately after the first missile hit and the CVR was broken 19 seconds after.[46]No information was released on the pilot's conversations recorded in CVR before Takeoff. Conversations prior to takeoff are crucial in routine investigations; in PS752 as they may explain reasons for the 57minutes delay in takeoff or the unusual situations reported by some of the passengers prior to takeoff.

2.3 ICAO and TSB Roles in the PS752 Investigation

The Serious Incident and Accident (SI&A) investigation was developed and adopted by United Nation members in 1944. ICAO published the 1st edition of Annex 13 per Article 26 of the Chicago Convention. The primary purpose of uniform air safety investigation, under Annex 13 by ICAO, is to harmonize the best approach in SI&A investigation and apply lessons learned to prevent similar events and conditions in future. Also, the member states actively adopt the best practices in Annex 13 provisions to improve aviation safety. Investigations conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Annex shall be separate from any judicial or administrative proceedings to apportion blame or liability.

However, the ICAO Annex 13 was not designed to investigate the SI&A caused by unlawful acts committed by governments. Yet in the case of PS752, Annex 13 safety investigations was still granted to Iran without consideration of the unlawful acts committed and regretfully agreed upon by the other affected countries. The latest revision of Annex 13, published in November of 2020, is developing a framework on paragraph 5.11 for cases such as MH 17 and PS752. This provision is in work by the ICAO’s Air Navigation Council (ANC) and Accident Investigation Group (AIG). The subject of section 5.11 has to do with Informing aviation security authorities and states:

“If, in the course of an investigation it becomes known, or it is suspected, that an act of unlawful interference was involved, the investigator-in-charge shall immediately initiate action to ensure that the aviation security authorities of the State(s) concerned are so informed.”

This has been a unique case where the state of occurrence is Islamic Republic of Iran involved in an “unlawful interference” in the downing of Flight PS752 with its military missiles but is still appointed as the lead investigator. The investigator-in-charge was AAIB which operates under CAO.IRI. As a result, the members of CAO.IRI, with close ties to IRGC who committed the shoot down, handled the investigation of PS752 (more details in Section 3.2).

The roles and responsibilities for stakeholders in SI&A have been defined and evolved in Annex 13 since 1951. Initially, the primary responsibility for investigations were assigned to the aircraft manufacturers. Gradually other factors such as states of design, operation, certification, and occurrence were added to investigations. There is also a definition for those states which suffered the most fatalities or serious injuries to their citizens, which is Canada in the case of PS752. In a similar tragedy of MH17, most victims were Dutch so the State of Occurrence (Ukraine), delegated the investigation to the Netherlands. However, CAO.IRI and AAIB refused to delegate the investigation to Canadian Transport Safety Board (TSB) and TSB also failed to request and insist for such delegation in conducting the investigation as if it had no rights or entitlements by ICAO. According to ICAO, the rights and entitlement for TSB Canada acting as representatives of a State which has a special interest in an accident by "virtue of fatalities" or serious injuries to its citizens include appointing an expert who shall be entitled to [47]: a) Visit the scene of the accident b) Have access to the relevant factual information which is approved for public release by the State conducting the investigation, and information on the progress of the investigation c) Receive a copy of the Final Report.

This will not preclude the state from also assisting in the identification of victims and in meetings with survivors from that state. There is also guidance related to assistance to aircraft accident victims and their families, provided in the Manual on Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims and their Families. The recommendation for the state which has citizens who fell victim to a civil aviation incident is to monitor the investigation process. The state conducting the investigation should release, at least during the first year of the investigation, established factual information and indicate the progress of the investigation in a timely manner. As it is discussed in Section 5 of this report, factuality of information provided by Islamic Republic of Iran is under serious questions in several areas.

According to Manual of Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation (Document 9756):

“Many States have achieved this objective [independence] by setting up their accident investigation authority as an independent statutory body or by establishing an accident investigation organization that is separate from the civil aviation administration.[48]”

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a bad reputation in aviation safety investigations and lacks transparency due to dependency of its AAIB to the country’s “civil aviation administration” known as CAO.IRI. AAIB, under the CAO.IRI control, did not conduct proper investigation per Annex 13 standards and recommendations and appears to have abused loopholes within Annex 13 by pressure from CAO.IRI, IRGC, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The evidence of non-compliance in interim reports and the Final Report as well as nonfactual information provided in those reports are discussed in Section 3.2 and 5 of this report respectively.

In addition to ICAO’s failure to dedicate proper rules for such events, the Canadian TSB also failed to investigate properly and diligently. The TSB failed to follow the recommended path in Annex 13 chapter 5, section 3 or try to find legal avenues to better engage since as a matter of fact the state of occurrence, Iran, was involved in "unlawful interference" in shooting down PS752 and special interest of Canada by the virtue of fatalities. The section states: ”If the State of Occurrence does not institute and conduct an investigation, and does not delegate the investigation to another State or a regional accident and incident investigation organization, as set out in 5.1 and 5.1.2, the State of Registry or, in the following order, the State of the Operator, the State of Design or the State of Manufacture is entitled to request in writing the State of Occurrence to delegate the conducting of such investigation. If the State of Occurrence gives express consent or does not reply to such a request within 30 days, the State making the request should institute and conduct the investigation with such information as is available”.

Iran’s AAIB not only failed to conduct a proper investigation for PS752, but also violated the Annex 13 provisions, abused the failure of Canadian TSB investigators in conducting a credible investigation, and deliberately misrepresented outside involvement in the PS752 investigation. ICAO and involved countries failed by accepting a heavily flawed "investigation" report drafted by a non-independent and biased entity under a country's "civil aviation administration" called CAO.IRI.

The Association’s fact-finding committee is working closely with the regulatory agencies to remind the authorities on their obligations, concerning PS752, and any event in future. The Association has been actively following and offering the fact-finding assistance for amendments

to provisional regulations. However, the mechanism for investigation delegation has not been effective to this date, and the Association continues to push for a proper rulemaking process, to handle future criminal acts, such as PS752.