Iran’s aviation chief denies Ukrainian airliner hit by missile

Iran’s civil aviation chief, Ali Abedzadeh, said on Friday that it was still unclear what caused a Ukrainian airliner to crash shortly after takeoff from Tehran airport on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board. Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, said in a news conference in Tehran, that they would prefer to download the black boxes in Iran, but did not rule out asking other countries for help in the event the data was damaged.