Iran has said it will not hand over black box flight recorders recovered from a plane that crashed with 176 people on board to manufacturer Boeing or to the US. The Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 went down just minutes after taking off from Tehran's airport, leaving no survivors. Under global aviation rules, Iran has the right to lead the investigation. But manufacturers are typically involved and experts say few countries are capable of analysing black boxes. The crash came at a time of high tensions between Iran and the US and just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two air bases housing US forces in Iraq. There is no evidence the two events are linked. Normally, the US NTSB would have a role to play in any international investigations involving US-made Boeings. But the board must act with permission and in accordance with legislation of the foreign country concerned. In comments published by Iran's conservative Mehr news agency, the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO), Ali Abedzadeh, said: "We will not give the black box to the manufacturer and the Americans. This accident will be investigated by Iran's aviation organisation but the Ukrainians can also be present. Abedzadeh said it was not yet clear which country would analyse the black boxes - a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.<br/>
general
Canada expects to play a big role in Iran’s probe of an airliner crash that killed 63 Canadians even though the two nations do not have diplomatic ties, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday. Trudeau said 138 of the 176 people on board the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 from Tehran to Kiev had onward connections to Canada. All aboard died when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff. Canada broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012. Trudeau said Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne would call his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif later on Wednesday to underline the need for a proper probe of the crash. “Canada is one of a handful of countries with a high degree of expertise when it comes to these sorts of accidents and therefore we have much to contribute,” Trudeau said. “I am confident that in our engagement both through our allies and directly, we are going to make sure that we are a substantive contributor to this investigation,” he said. Italy normally acts as a proxy for communication between Canada and Iran, and the Ukrainian ambassador told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that his government was willing to help. The disaster marked one of the greatest losses of Canadian life in a single day in recent years. Trudeau would not comment on possible causes for the tragedy. Most of the victims came from Canada’s Iranian community. Among the dead were a newlywed couple that had traveled to Iran to get married as well as two professors at the University of Alberta.<br/>
Major international airlines are cancelling and re-routing flights in the Middle East after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi military bases that house US forces. Air France, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines and Taiwan's EVA Air said they were avoiding the airspace above Iran and Iraq. Singapore Airlines said it would not fly over Iran. The FAA meanwhile restricted commercial US flights "from operating in the airspace over Iraq, Iran, and the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman." Authorities in Russia recommended the country's airlines avoid the same areas. Escalating tensions between the United States and Iran are making it tougher for airlines to fly over the Middle East, where huge chunks of airspace are already off limits because of political rivalries or war. The attacks by Tehran were retaliation for a US airstrike last week that killed a top Iranian general. A US official said that there were no initial reports of any US casualties from the attack. Some airlines reacted by canceling flights. Lufthansa said it would not fly to Tehran or Erbil, a city in northern Iraq that is home to one of the bases hit in the Iranian missile strike. Emirates canceled flights between Dubai and Baghdad, where the Iranian general was killed. Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines said they were conducting flights as usual. BA and Virgin Atlantic said they were monitoring the situation, but not yet diverting flights. For commercial airlines and freight carriers, flight restrictions mean taking the long way around, costing time and money. <br/>
Australians will continue to fly into airspace around Iran that has been blacklisted by US authorities under code-share arrangements with Gulf area airlines. Qantas is considering re-routing its Perth to London flights via Singapore or Hong Kong but its code-share deal with Dubai-based Emirates remains unchanged, a spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Virgin Australia said the airline’s similar agreement with Etihad also remained in place. Emirates and Etihad run multiple non-stop services every day from Melbourne and Sydney to the United Arab Emirates, where both are headquartered, using large-capacity planes that each carry hundreds of people. On Wednesday, the US FAA banned American carriers from flying into the Gulf, or over Iran and Iraq, following missile attacks by Iran on military bases in Iraq that host US forces. In an apparently unrelated incident, a plane bound for Kiev crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran airport on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board. Australia’s regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, does not issue FAA-style safety rulings and instead relies on airlines to make their own judgments. Qantas currently runs one flight of its own that passes through the area, the QF9 service from Perth to London.<br/>
Still reeling from a crisis involving its long-grounded Max jet, Boeing faces new questions after an earlier model of the 737 crashed Wednesday in Iran. It is too early to know what caused the crash and whether Boeing bears any responsibility for the lives of all 176 people who died aboard the 3 1/2-year-old plane. At a minimum, however, the disaster will add to the burden facing Boeing's incoming CEO, David Calhoun, as he tries to repair the iconic airplane maker's balance sheet and reputation. “We need to know the cause," said William Waldock, a safety science professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "If it turns out to be an intentional act, that's not something (Boeing) can control. If it was something with the plane, there is one more item they have to get fixed." Even experts who discount the likelihood of a problem with the plane — a version of the 737 that has been built since the 1990s and has earned a good safety record — say that Boeing's public image will suffer. "I think everyone will quickly realize that there is very little chance, if any, that this has anything to do with the design or manufacture of the jet," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with Teal Group. “But people are going to see ‘737 Destroyed.’ How do you quantify that in terms of reputational damage?" Boeing officials hunkered down on Wednesday, not saying much publicly after a 737-800 flown by Ukraine International Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's main airport. The company issued short statements saying it was gathering more information and was ready to help the Ukrainian airline in any way.<br/>
IATA’s latest air freight market analysis, which details figures for November 2019, noted that industry-wide freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) dipped by 1.1% year on year. This marked the 13th consecutive month of year-on-year decline in air freight volumes. However, November’s performance was also the best in eight months, because it showed the slowest year-on-year rate of contraction since March 2019. IATA suggested that the slowdown in declines in November could have been due to huge e-commerce events, such as Single’s Day in Asia and Black Friday, which both took place that month. However, October and November’s performance still marked a disappointing start to the peak season, which is usually the busiest time of year by far in terms of air freight demand. Alexandre de Juniac, CE of IATA, believes peak season was hindered by factors such as the US-China trade war. “Demand for air cargo in November was down 1.1% compared with the previous year,” de Juniac commented. “That’s better than the 3.5% decline posted in October, but it is a big disappointment considering that the fourth quarter is usually air cargo’s peak season”. On a slightly more positive note, he added: “Looking forward, signs of a thawing in US-China trade tensions are good news, but trading conditions at present remain very challenging.” Story has more detailed breakdown of figures.<br/>