Iran admits shooting down Ukraine International flight

The country’s president Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday (11 January) that an investigation had found that flight PS752 had been downed by "missiles fired due to human error" after the passenger aircraft was mistaken for a cruise missile.

The Ukraine International’s Boeing 787-800 was travelling to Kiev when it was downed at just after 6am on 8 January shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International airport.

The incident came just hours after Iranian forces had attacked US military airbases in Iraq in retaliation for the US killing of leading Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

Iranian authorities had originally insisted the crash of flight PS752 had been down to a "technical" problem. But media reports quickly emerged of evidence that the flight had been downed by a missile.

Iran’s admission that the flight had been shot down has sparked protests around Iran against its leaders.

On Friday (10 January), the UK’s Foreign Office changed its travel guidance and is now advising against all travel to Iran, as well as “against all air travel to, from and within Iran”.