Flight 752: where inquiry stood on 15 January 2020

What was established about the loss of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 by 15 January 2020? By then, the main question of responsibility had been answered by Iran itself, after several days of competing accounts.

The flight was a scheduled service from Tehran to Kyiv, operated by Ukraine International Airlines. On 8 January 2020 the Boeing 737-800 was shot down shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 people on board. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was later identified as responsible.

Caution, then denial

On 9 January 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference it was too early to draw definitive conclusions that the downing was an act of war. At the same event he condemned Iran's attack on U.S. bases in Iraq.

On 10 January 2020, after Trudeau suggested the plane had been brought down by an Iranian missile, Iranian authorities rejected that theory. The head of Iran's civil aviation said he was certain no missile had hit the aircraft, and he continued to put the cause down to mechanical failure.

Iran changes its account

The denial did not last. On 11 January 2020, Iran's president officially acknowledged that the country's armed forces had mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian airliner with a missile near Tehran.

So by 15 January 2020 the sequence was clear: a cautious Canadian statement on 9 January, an Iranian rejection of the missile theory on 10 January, and an official admission of a mistaken missile strike on 11 January.