Location: Tehran, Iran
Summary of Issue/Background
- On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752) was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile over Tehran, Iran. All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and many more with ties to Canada.
- In response, in March 2020, Transport Canada established the Safer Skies Initiative to work with international organizations, the civil aviation industry, and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)Footnote 1 to enhance the level of safety and security for commercial airlines travelling in higher risk areas and to prevent future tragedies. Progress to date has included:
- the creation of a Canadian Conflict Zone Information Office to monitor foreign conflict zones and establish more efficient and timely information-sharing practices with domestic and international partners;
- the creation of the Safer Skies Consultative Committee, composed of States and international aviation organizations dedicated to sharing best practices, facilitating information sharing and advocating all matters related to conflict zones;
- the Safer Skies Commitment Statement, which was signed by 19 States and 4 international organizations and commits to five action items that will strengthen international cooperation, national procedures and air operator’s engagement in regards to conflict zones and airspace management; and
- the creation of the Safer Skies Forum, which was first hosted by Transport Canada in December 2020 and brought together over 400 participants from 82 countries and 31 industry stakeholders to share expertise and engage in discussions with respect to mitigating conflict zone risk. The Forum is intended to become an annual event, and the next iteration will be held in March 2022.
- In addition to the Safer Skies Initiative, Transport Canada and Global Affairs Canada, along with other key federal departments, continue to work together on the top priority of seeking transparency, accountability and justice for the families of the victims, through State-to-State negotiations with Iran to obtain reparations for the families of the victims, providing continued support to the families of the victims of PS752, planning for commemorations of the victims of aircraft tragedies, implementing the recommendations stemming from the Honorable Ralph Goodale report, and advocating for enhancements to ICAO’s Annex 13 accident investigation framework.
- The investigation into the downing of Flight PS752 was led by Iran’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB). Its report claimed that the sole cause of the tragedy was surface-to-air missile operator error. Canada believes the report is incomplete, disingenuous, misleading and superficial, and intentionally ignores key factors that led to the downing of Flight PS752.
- Given that Iran presented an incomplete account of events, failed to outline all relevant actions by military and civilian authorities that likely contributed to the shoot down, and fell well short of providing a credible explanation of how and why the downing occurred, Canada took the unprecedented action of launching its own investigation to construct a factual account of the disaster and identify the critical contributing elements and factors.
- The Canadian Forensic Examination and Assessment Team (FT) was created to analyze every available piece of information, evidence, and intelligence on the PS752 disaster collected by the Government of Canada and allied partners, including highly classified information. The FT determined that although the surface-to-air missile operator’s actions played a key role in the downing of Flight PS752, his actions and the resulting tragedy could and should have been avoided. More importantly, the FT report demonstrated that Iranian civilian and military authorities, through their decisions, actions and omissions, played a significant role in the downing of Flight PS752.
- Transport Canada is leading efforts to enhance ICAO’s accident investigation system so that future investigations conducted under circumstances similar to PS752 are as independent, transparent, thorough and credible as possible. To this end, TC presented a Working Paper – for which it was able to secure co-sponsorship from 55 ICAO Member States and support from many more – at the ICAO High Level Conference on COVID-19 (HLCC 2021) on October 18, 2021. The paper proposed that ICAO consider in its review of Annex 13, key questions to address conflict of interest scenarios in order to ensure the independence and effectiveness of air accident investigations, which would increase confidence in the investigation process and findings resulting report.
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- The ICAO Secretariat recognized the benefit of a review of Annex 13 to better address conflict of interest scenarios during investigations and voiced encouragement for timely referral to the Accident Investigation Group Panel leading the review of the investigation framework, which is a highly positive outcome of Canada’s efforts.
- At HLCC 2021, the Safer Skies Consultative Committee submitted an Information Paper to provide the global community with an update on the work it has undertaken since its inception.
- The overall objective of the HLCC 2021 was to reach a global consensus on a multilateral approach to enable a safe and efficient recovery from the pandemic and to build a foundation to make the aviation industry more resilient and sustainable.
Messages
- The Government of Canada will not accept anything less than a comprehensive and honest explanation from the Iranian regime of what occurred on January 8, 2020. Through their decisions, actions and omissions, Iranian civilian and military authorities bear the full and complete responsibility of the downing of PS752. It is because of their recklessness, incompetence, and wanton disregard for human life that innocent lives were cut short.
- Canada remains committed to holding Iran accountable and obtaining justice by vigorously pursuing full reparations for the harm that it has caused to the victims’ families and the affected States.
- In response to our country’s collective grief, Canada has also committed to ensuring that no civilian is ever again put at risk by flying over or near a conflict zone. Through initiatives like Safer Skies, Canada is working with international organizations, the civil aviation industry, and the International Civil Aviation Organization, to reduce the risks of conflict zones and their disastrous effects on aviation safety.
- Canada is dedicated to seeing through efforts to enhance the International Civil Aviation Organization accident investigation system to prevent improve the credibility of future investigations conducted under conflict of interest conditions.