Iran to pay $150,000 to families of Ukraine plane downed in error

The Iranian government will pay $150,000 as compensation to the families of each of the 176 victims of the Ukrainian plane downed near Tehran airport in January, IRNA news agency reported yesterday.

At the time, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard admitted to shooting down the plane shortly after take-off; mistaking it for a missile at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.

On Saturday Iran officially apologised for shooting down the airplane, citing “American adventurism” in the region which caused the tragedy that killed 176 people.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the army’s investigation of the incident concluded that the missile that shot down the plane had been fired due to “unforgivable human error”.

The plane was carrying nine crew members, Iranian-Canadian citizens, as well as victims from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian plane was shot down shortly after take-off in Tehran, when Iran’s defences were on high alert, hours after Iran fired at US bases in Iraq in retaliation for a US attack that killed an Iranian commander at Baghdad airport.

READ: The truth about US casualties in the Iran attack is slowly coming out