The jinxed flight from Teheran to Kyiv was scheduled to be
carried out by the UP-PSR airframe received by UAI on July
20th, 2016. Ukraine International Airlines was the sole and
first operator of that airliner. The aircraft took off at 0242
UTC - and, what's relevant for what happened next, the flight
had been delayed. The B737 crew was quite experienced
- Cpt. Gaponenko had 11,600 flight hours logged (including
5,500 on the captain's seat), while the FO had 7,600 flight
hours accumulated. Furthermore, an instructor pilot with
12,000 hours of flying (6,600 as a captain) was also present in
the cockpit. His presence was caused by the fact that UAI has
been using the IKA for the training of the 737 crews within the
scope of safety procedures.
Boeing 737-800 UP-PSR shot down by the Iranian air defense assets on 8th January
2020. Image Credit: Tomas Milosch
Photo: Wikipedia
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