Iran says Ukraine jet's black boxes 'inoperable' minutes after strike

Iran said the black boxes of a Ukrainian passenger jet stopped working shortly after the plane was struck by the first of two missiles in January, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

Three pilots can be heard for 19 seconds in the flight data recordings after the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 was hit by the first Iranian missile on Jan. 8, Touraj Dehghani, head of the Iran Civil Aviation Organization, said in a briefing on Sunday. The plane was hit by the second missile 25 seconds later.

“The first missile did considerable damage to the plane,” which rendered the flight recorders