Ahmet Gürhan Kartal
09 January 2020•Update: 09 January 2020
LONDON
British government on Thursday said it was looking into “very concerning” reports about the crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet after Ukraine said a missile strike could be the cause of the crash.
A statement from Downing Street said Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “offered his condolences” “for the loss of the Ukraine International Airlines plane and for all those who were on board.”
“President Zelenskyy updated the Prime Minister [Johnson] on Ukrainian efforts to establish the facts and the Prime Minister offered U.K. support,” the statement said.
Johnson said that “there needed to be a full, credible and transparent investigation into what happened.”
A missile hit and a terrorist attack are among the suspected causes of the deadly crash of a Ukraine plane in Tehran on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials.
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) said on Thursday that a third cause could be the engine explosion due to a technical glitch.
A NSDC statement said the trajectory of the aircraft showed the plane belonging to the Ukraine International Airlines changed its route to return to the airport but pilots did not report any emergencies.
Iran's Civil Aviation Organization said Thursday the plane caught fire before hitting the ground.
The crash killed all 176 people on board shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport. It came at a time the Iranian army launched tens of ballistic missiles targeting U.S. troops in Iraq.
Iran’s attack came in response to the last week’s assassination of Iran's Quds Forces leader Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike.
Johnson also “underlined the U.K.’s continued commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty and the leaders agreed to continue working together to strengthen the bilateral relationship between our two countries,” according to the statement.
