Ukraine: Recording Shows Iran Knew Missile Fire Took Down Plane

A newly released recording¹ reportedly shows that Iranian officials knew a missile had brought down a Ukrainian passenger airplane last month. The plane crashed shortly after leaving Tehran, killing² all 176 people on the jet.

Sunday night, a Ukrainian television station broadcast what it said was a recording of an exchange between Iranian air traffic controllers and an Iranian pilot.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the authenticity³ of the recording.

Iran reacted on Monday. The head of the Iranian team investigating the crash, Hassan Razaeifar, said he believed the recording was real. He admitted that the recording had been given to Ukrainian officials. But he condemned⁴ its release to the media, calling the act "unprofessional."

The Mehr news agency reported that Rezaeifar said the release made Iran not want to give the Ukrainians any more evidence.

Iran's civilian⁵ government denied for days after the January 8 crash that it knew who had shot down the aircraft. The aircraft was struck hours after Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched ballistic missiles in an attack on Iraqi bases that housed United States forces. It was Iran's reaction to an American drone aircraft killing a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad. Soleimani was the top general of the Guard's Quds Force.

The Associated Press notes that the Guard is answerable only to Iran's top religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ukrainian TV publishes recording

Ukrainian television channel Ukrainian 1+1 published a written version of the recording. It contains an exchange between an air-traffic controller and a pilot for Iran's Aseman Airlines. His plane reportedly was flying near Tehran at the time of the attack.

"A series of lights like...yes, it's a missile, is there something?" the pilot calls out to the controller.

"No, how many miles? Where?" the controller asks.

The pilot then says, "It is the light of a missile." He later says that he saw an explosion. "It was an explosion. We saw a very big light there, I don't really know what it was," the pilot goes on to say.

Publicly available radar⁶ information suggests that people on the Aseman Airlines flight were close enough to Tehran to see the explosion.

For several days, civilian aviation officials in Iran said a missile did not bring down the plane. At the same time, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. officials said it appeared that the plane had been shot down.

Ukraine's president told the television station that, "The recording, indeed, shows that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was shot down by a missile."

Zelensky again asked Iran to send the plane's flight recorders to Kyiv. Iranian officials promised to do so last month but have not yet done so.

On Monday, Ukrainian investigators⁷ were to travel to Tehran to take part in the process of decoding⁸ the recorders, known as "black boxes." Zelensky, however, wants the devices to be brought to Kyiv. "It is very important for us," he said.

Words in This Story

authenticity – n. something that is not a reproduction or a copy

channel – n. a television or radio station

mile – n. a form of measurement equal to 1.6 kilometers

decode⁹ – v. to discover the meaning of information provided

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 authenticity   

n.真实性

参考例句：

• There has been some debate over the authenticity of his will. 对于他的遗嘱的真实性一直有争论。
• The museum is seeking an expert opinion on the authenticity of the painting. 博物馆在请专家鉴定那幅画的真伪。

4 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

5 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

6 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

7 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 decoding   

n.译码，解码v.译（码），解（码）( decode的现在分词 )；分析及译解电子信号

参考例句：

• We cannot add any other memory to this system without further decoding. 如果不增加译码，就不能使系统的存贮容量有任何扩展。 来自辞典例句
• Examples using the 8250 will be presented in hardware section to clarify full-decoding schemes. 在硬件一节中有应用说明全译码方案8250的例子。 来自辞典例句

9 decode   

vt.译（码），解（码）

参考例句：

• All he had to do was decode it and pass it over.他需要做的就是将它破译然后转给他人。
• The secret documents were intercepted and decoded.机密文件遭截获并被破译。