OTTAWA: I Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada. adding, “multiple intelligence reports point out that the plance was hot down by Iran”/
Canadian Premier’s comments came as video emerged that appeared to show the oment the airliner was hit. That and other footage posted on social media increasingly pointed to a catastrophic mistake by Tehran’s air defense batteries in bringing down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 early Wednesday.
Citing information from allies as well as Canada’s own intelligence, Trudeau said the plane appeared to have been hit by an Iranian surface-to-air missile (SAM).
“We know this may have been unintentional. Canadians have questions, and they deserve answers,” Trudeau told reporters.
He was backed by other Western leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said mounting evidence supported a missile strike, which “may well have been unintentional.”
Trudeau said Canada was working with allies to ensure a credible probe. “The families of the victims want answers, Canadians want answers, I want answers,” he said.
“This government will not rest until we get that”, the Canadian Premier said.
Canada’s transportation safety board on Thursday said it had accepted an invitation from Iran’s civil aviation authority to join the inquiry.
‘I have my suspicions’
“I think this has a very good possibility of being accurate,” John Goglia, a former US aviation safety expert on the National Transportation Safety Board, said of the missile theory.
“Airplanes that have just taken off and have made a climb to 8,000 feet, that’s entering the safest period of time in the flight. So even an engine failure at that altitude should not cause the type of event we’ve just observed,” he said.
The Ukrainian airline crash brought back memories of another tragedy, involving a US military error.
In 1988, an Iran Air flight was mistakenly shot down over the Gulf by a surface-to-air missile fired from the US warship USS Vincennes.
All 290 people aboard, most of them Iranians, were killed.
Ukraine called for United Nations support for a broad investigation, and sent 45 crash investigators to Tehran to take part in the inquiry led by Iranian authorities.
Investigators are pursuing several possibilities, including engine failure, a missile strike or an act of terror.
Read more: Ukrainian jet crashes in Iran; all 176 on board dead
