Pope Francis Prays for 176 Victims of Iran Plane Crash

The plane was bound for Kyiv, Ukraine when it went down, killing 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three Britons, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said.

Nine of the 11 Ukrainians killed were crew members of the plane. There were no survivors, according to Pir Hossein Kulivand, an Iranian emergency official.

Iran’s head of emergency operations said the number of Iranian victims was 147, suggesting that many of the foreign victims had dual nationalities.

Iranian officials have said the cause of the accident was a faulty engine.

According to The Independent, the Ukrainian embassy in Iran has appeared to have removed an early statement in which they suggested the cause of the accident was a technical failure and that terrorist attack or missile strike had been ruled out.

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A new statement appeared on the same website later the same day, stating that “previous comments” about the cause of the crash were not official and an official inquiry will be conducted.

Iranian and Ukrainian officials have said they suspect the cause to be mechanical issues.

Reuters reported that Urkainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk urged people not to speculate about the accident until officially established.
 

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.