Flight 752: Iran denies missile theory on 10 January

What did the world know about the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 by 10 January 2020, two days after the crash? A great deal had emerged, yet Tehran was still insisting on a different explanation.

The flight was a scheduled service from Tehran to Kyiv, operated by Ukraine International Airlines. On 8 January 2020 the Boeing 737-800 went down shortly after takeoff, and all 176 people on board were killed.

Western officials point to a missile

On 9 January, officials from the United States, Canada, Britain and Iraq said they believed the aircraft had most likely been brought down accidentally by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile. Iran, for its part, attributed the crash to "mechanical failure".

The same day, the New York Times published a verified video obtained from an Iranian citizen. It showed the plane being struck by what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile.

Also on 9 January, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference it was too early to draw definitive conclusions that the downing amounted to an "act of war". He also condemned Iran's attack on U.S. bases in Iraq.

Tehran holds its line

On 10 January, after Trudeau suggested the plane had been downed by an Iranian missile, Iranian authorities rejected that theory. Iran's civil aviation chief said he was "certain" the aircraft had not been hit by a missile, and he continued to assert that the cause was "mechanical failure".

The gap between the two accounts was therefore stark on 10 January 2020. Several governments, backed by a video, favoured a missile strike. Iranian aviation officials rejected the idea outright.

The background to the dispute became clear only afterwards: the aircraft was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as later accounts of the disaster established. On 10 January itself, that conclusion had not been acknowledged by Iran, and the denial stood.