Oleksandr Ruvin: KSRIFE able to decipher black boxes if Iran transfers them to Ukraine

This was stated by Director of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, Oleksandr Ruvin, in an interview with the Journalist.

“We have opportunity to investigate the causes of the tragedy in Tehran if the Iranian side provides black boxes and other materials from the crash site. Now we were able to fix the results of inspections carried out on-scene, but we have limited access to the remains of the aircraft and the belongings that were there,” he said.

Tehran was visited by A group of Ukrainian experts consisting of 45 people, representative of the National Bureau for the Investigation of Disasters with Civil Aircraft, the Ukrainian Air Traffic Control Service, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KSRIFE.

“We saw black boxes, but Iran has no appropriate equipment for decrypting data. Kyiv has a laboratory, created on the basis of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, which has both equipment and specialists with the necessary experience to conduct these studies. Negotiations with the Iranian side on the transfer of black boxes to Ukraine are ongoing, but the decision is constantly changing – in the morning we hear that the boxes will be transferred, and in the evening – they would not,” the head of KSRIFE said.

“At the crash site we found the remains of mobile phones, tablets, wallets with cards and documents with signs of damage on them. We were able to see the wreckage of the aircraft and partially reproduce the events.

Some Ukrainian experts stayed in Tehran to continue the study the remains, together with specialists from the Central Bureau of Forensic Medical Examinations of Iran and to join the study of negotiations between ground services and the aircraft crew. We are not able to carry out investigative actions in full, since the international standards delegate this right to the country where the disaster occurred. Now we are waiting for the results of negotiations with the Iranian side, but from the expertise point of view, we have the necessary equipment and specialists with relevant experience to determine what exactly caused the disaster,” the director of the KSRIFE Oleksandr Ruvin summed up.