Nearly two weeks after a Kyiv-bound Ukrainian plane was "mistakenly" shot down by Iran's armed forces west of Tehran, Iranian officials continue to defy international pressure by keeping their grip on the flight recorders recovered from the crash site.
Iran's civil aviation organization released a report Jan. 21 into the details of the incident, acknowledging that the black boxes on the Boeing 737 flight were equipped with advanced technology, making it impossible for Iranian experts to download and decipher the data. The report added that the United States and France had been formally requested to share the needed technology with Iran, a demand that "has not received a positive reply." Iranian authorities, according to the report, are now finding ways to purchase the decoding equipment, insisting they will examine the recorded data inside the country.
