Iran must co-operate with Boeing and international crash investigators, says aviation analyst

Transcript

A British aviation analyst is calling on Iran to fully co-operate with Boeing and investigators from all the countries affected by Wednesday's deadly plane crash. 

Iran is responsible for investigating the crash that killed 176 people, including at least 63 Canadians, according to international regulations. Iranian state television said both of the plane's black box voice and data recorders had been found.

But the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr reported the country's civil aviation organization is refusing to give them to Boeing, the U.S. company that made the jet. 

Iran and the U.S. are in a state of conflict. Iranian forces fired missiles at military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq early on Wednesday in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it has appointed an expert "who will receive and review factual information released by [Iran] and monitor the progress of the investigation."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will "work closely with its international partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated."

Paul Beaver, a British aviation security analyst and a former pilot, spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about the crash. Here is part of that interview. 

What are the most significant details you've seen so far about what may have caused this crash?

There's a lot of information that seems to be floating around in these days of people with mobile phones, and also because there's so much focus on on Iran because of recent problems with the United States.

I think what worries me about what I've seen is a lack of co-ordination and proper procedure by the authorities in Tehran to cordon off the site and do a systematic search of the wreckage.

We have only those snips of video that are taken at the crash site. We can see that there are Red Cross people around gathering the bodies and remains, putting them into a body bags. They are gathering up the personal belongings of people, piling them up, moving around the debris. When you see these pictures, what alarms you about that?

Yes, I think you're seeing the Red Crescent there, doing their humanitarian job, [which] I think is right and proper. However, what I would have liked to have seen would be that the crash site to have been cordoned off and there to be a systematic search, looking at the wreckage, taking photographs of it, making measurements.

What they'll have to do is piece together this airplane again to try and find out exactly what did happen. And unless they use the protocols that are accepted by just about everybody that signed the Chicago convention on air travel, then some of the information, some of the clues, could well be swept away or be put in a different position, so that it doesn't make sense.

Experts are needed — experts from Boeing, from the American authorities, from the French engine manufacturer and, of course, from the Ukrainians as well, because it's their airliner.

We know a lot about Boeing 737-800s. Luckily, there aren't many accidents with them, but there's enough information out there for the experts to be able to do this. But if Tehran won't allow them in, then there is a real issue.

What we've heard from the company, from the Ukrainian airlines, is that this was one of their best planes. It had just recently passed a full inspection. They had some of their best pilots who were operating on that plane. So what are the possible flaws? What could possibly have been wrong with the plane itself?

This is a relatively new airplane, just about 3 ½ years old. I mean, we've had a recent major overhaul. These are all specified by Boeing, and these will have been taken care of. International airlines have to do that. They have an obligation to do that.

The video that shows it actually on fire as goes down, I think, could well be key. Because this would suggest to me something external to the airplane.

It might take us a while to know what went wrong here because Tehran has got to co-operate with everybody. Britain, Canada, Sweden — we've all got nationals who were killed in that air crash. And so, therefore, we're all interested as well.

You're referring, first of all, to a video that's not yet verified as to whether this was the plane. ... But what do you mean by something external?

If this video is substantiated ... this will give indications to the investigators as to what went wrong.

Could it have been something? Could it have been a missile? Could it have been a piece of debris from something else perhaps it picked up on the runway?

There are a host of questions that the examiners will be going through, if they're going to conduct this properly, as I hope they will.

But let's just go to the takeoff itself. It was five minutes into its flight — 8,000 feet it had climbed, or 2,400 metres, and then what appears is that the aircraft data disappears. There's no indication that the plane has slowed down or anything has changed. It just stopped doing what it was doing, and starts a descent. So what does that tell you?

It's very strange. Something catastrophic is happening to that airplane — but it's so catastrophic that it's instant.

It's almost as if  ... the airplane flew into a brick wall. 

At the moment, I think we have to keep an open mind on this. It's just that you can't rule anything out.

OK, we don't want to speculate too much, but what could be that brick wall? What could that signify?

A brick wall could be a catastrophic failure with the system that completely took out the electronics in the aircraft. It could be something external hitting the aircraft and causing that.

Could it have been an icing problem, which caused an engine to malfunction? All of these things will be looked at.

I think it's too early to be absolutely certain. I want to see more data, and I'm sure we'll get that if Tehran is prepared to help and co-operate.

Is there any reason to believe that this is anything other than a catastrophic accident?

The only thing that would concern me, and does concern me, is that this was, if you like, a war zone last night and early this morning Tehran time.

There's nothing unusual in this flight. It should have been a regular flight. So what actually happened could be connected with last night, or it might just be pure coincidence. And I'm afraid we won't know that for some time.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from Reuters. Interview produced by Kate Swoger. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.