Iran has announced that it will give $150,000 United States dollars to the families of each of the 176 people who were killed after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired 2 TOR M-1 missiles at a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 shortly after it took off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. The aircraft was shot down at 06:12 local time on January 8th, 2020, and resulted in the deaths of 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 4 Afghans, 4 Britons, and 3 Germans.
After initially denying responsibility, Iran later admitted that it opened fire on the aircraft "unintentionally" in a "disastrous mistake". At the time, Iranian air defense systems were on high alert as hours earlier, the country launched ballistic missiles against two American bases in Iraq in retaliation for a US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. A report from the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization reported that the air defense unit responsible for the downing of Flight PS752 was recently moved, failed to calibrate its equipment properly, and misidentified the passenger jet as a hostile aircraft. The missile battery fired on the plane without receiving official approval, and failed to communicate with its command center.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said that the compensation amounts should be negotiated according to international practice, and demanded that those responsible for launching the missiles should face punishment for ending innocent lives. Likewise, a report written by the Canadian government's special counsel on the incident says that Iran has not disclosed many crucial details of the incident including the names of those responsible for the attack and why the Iranian airspace had not been closed, especially as the nation's air defense systems were active. The report says that Iran's lack of transparency "does not inspire confidence or trust".
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