Ukraine International Airlines said Saturday that its plane that crashed in Iran this week had received no warning from Tehran airport about a possible threat to its safety before it took off en route for Kiev. At a briefing by its president and vice president, the airline also denied the aircraft veered off its normal course after an Iranian military statement said the plane flew close to a sensitive military site of the elite Revolutionary Guards. The airline officials bristled at what they said were hints from Iran that the crew had not acted properly. Iran said earlier that its military mistakenly shot down the plane, saying air defences were fired in error while on high alert in the tense aftermath of Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq. All 176 people on board were killed. The airline officials called on Iran to take full responsibility for the crash and said the Iranian authorities should have closed the airport. “If you play at war, you play as much as you want, but there are normal people around who you had to protect,” VP Ihor Sosnovsky said. “If they are shooting from somewhere to somewhere, they were obliged to close the airport. Obliged. And then shoot as much as you want.” He added that the plane had turned 15 degrees to the right after it had reached 6,000 feet, in accordance with the instructions of the airport dispatcher. Yevhenii Dykhne, the president and CE of the airline, made an emotional opening statement to reporters saying the airline had not done anything wrong in terms of following security procedures. <br/>
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Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, his voice sometimes breaking, on Sunday told a vigil for some of those killed in an Iranian plane disaster that he would “pursue justice and accountability” for what happened. Iran says it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner on Wednesday, killing 176 people. Fifty-seven Canadians died, most of them of Iranian descent, in one of the biggest single losses of life Canada has suffered in 40 years. “You may feel unbearably lonely, but you are not alone. Your entire country stands with you, tonight, tomorrow, and in all the years to come,” Trudeau told a standing-room crowd of 2,300 in a basketball gymnasium in Edmonton, Alberta, home to 13 of the victims. Most had direct links to the University of Alberta. “This tragedy should have never occurred, and I want to assure you that you have my full support during this extraordinarily difficult time ... you give us purpose to pursue justice and accountability for you,” said Trudeau, who has demanded Canada take part in the crash probe. “We will not rest until there are answers.”<br/>
Iran has issued eight more visas to a team of Canadian officials following a fatal plane crash near Tehran and most members of the group should be in Tehran on Monday, Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Sunday. Champagne said on Twitter that three officials from the rapid deployment team had flown to Iran on Saturday to set up a base of operations and a further eight would travel on Monday. The last member will arrive in Ankara on Monday. “We expect the (team) to be fully in place to do their important work by Jan 14,” Champagne said. Iran has admitted that its military mistakenly shot down the plane on Wednesday, killing all 176 aboard, at a time when Tehran feared US air strikes. Canada says it wants to take part in the crash investigation and help the families of the Canadians who died. The team includes consular officials and two members of Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB). The TSB said later it would deploy a second team of investigators who specialize in aircraft recorder download and analysis “once we confirm where and when this activity will take place.” It did not give more details. Canada does not have diplomatic relations with Iran.<br/>
Ukrainian PM Oleksiy Honcharuk said on Saturday that Ukraine would pay 200,000 hryvnia each to the families of those who died in a plane crash in Iran this week. He said Ukraine International Airlines would make payments to the families of the crew members who died in the crash. The airline's spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. Honcharuk also said Ukrainian diplomats were working on how to receive compensation from the Iranian authorities. Iran said earlier its military had shot down the Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 aboard in a "disastrous mistake".<br/>
Flybe is reportedly at risk of collapse, less than a year after it was taken over by a Virgin Atlantic-led consortium. The airline operates more UK domestic flights than any other, and is in talks over potential emergency financing after suffering rising losses, Sky News reported. It reported that Flybe has been holding talks with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Transport (DfT) on whether the government could provide or facilitate any emergency financing to the company. Some 2,000 jobs are said to be at risk. A Flybe spokeswoman said: "Flybe continues to focus on providing great service and connectivity for our customers, to ensure that they can continue to travel as planned. We don't comment on rumour or speculation." Were FlyBe to go bust, it would be the second major airline in four months to collapse, following the demise of Thomas Cook Group last September. <br/>
Airline shares surged in Europe after Ryanair said it expects to post a bigger-than-expected full-year profit following a spike in lucrative last-minute bookings over the Christmas and New Year holiday. Europe’s biggest discount airline now anticipates earnings for the 12 months through March of between E950m and E1.05b, and most likely in the middle of that range, according to a statement on Friday. It had previously forecast E800m to E900m. The spate of late bookings helped lift yields, a measure of fares, according to Ryanair, which reports Q3 results on Feb 3. Sales for January through April are also 1% up on this time last year and that should result in slightly better pricing in the fourth quarter, with the full-year passenger tally reaching 154m or 1m more than previously forecast. <br/>