PS752: Not a Number

January 14th 2024

How often do you think of a flight number? Imagine this:

You’ve been on vacation. It’s time to go back home. Quick! Pack your things and get ready. Better be at the airport early. Clothes neatly tucked in, phone is charged, passports, tickets, papers, and the book you brought with you to pass the time, but never found a quiet moment to read. Did you forget anything? The muffled sound of the news anchor coming from the TV, talking of the killed General and prospects of retaliation. Tensions are as high as never before. God forbid, war doesn’t even seem that unlikely anymore… No time to worry. Got to hurry to the airport! Did you forget anything? “Enough cash for the Exit fee?” (yes, exit-fee) Your loved one from halfway across the world reminds you. Once on the flight you let them know, say your goodbyes and see-you-soons, and set your phone on airplane mode.

Or maybe you’re the one halfway across the world. Restlessly awaiting their arrival. You clean the house, make welcoming signs, remind them of things they might forget to pack, buy flowers and maybe you think of where to go to eat after you pick them up from the airport. “We’re taking off! See you in a few hours.” That was the last thing you heard of them. But the plane never lands. It crashes. No survivors. Not due to technical issues or a mistake made by the flight crew, but due to a surface-to air-missile launched from the same country it just took off from.

This is what happened to Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 (PS752). On January 8th, 2020, passenger flight number PS752 heading from Tehran to Kiev, went up in flames after being hit by two missiles about 3 minutes after take-off claiming the lives of every one of the 176 innocent men, women, and children on board. While initially denying any involvement, 3 days after the incident, in the face of mounting evidence, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for shooting down the plane.

But why would the Iranian military kill its own people? The disaster occurred exactly five days after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, a major general within the IRCG at the hands of the US-american military. On the 3rd of January, Suleimani – who is NOT perceived to be a national hero by all Iranians as the Tagesschau claimed when covering the  anniversary of his death – was killed by a drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq. The primary objective of the IRGC is to ensure that the Islamic Republic of Iran as a political system remains intact. The objective therefore lies in upholding the social, economical and military status quo within Iran by defending against any unwanted foreign inferences relating to the country's domestic affairs. 

The assassination of one of the most prominent military officers within the IRGC led to a heightened state of alert within the military branch as they were preparing for a full-on military escalation between Iran and the USA. Shortly after the Ukranian passenger plane took off from Imam Khomeini airport at 6:14 am it was detected by the air defence system of the IRGC troops stationed in the north-east of Iran. Misidentifying the plane as a foreign military aircraft the decision was made to intercept the object. The plane was shot down with an anti-aircraft missile killing all passengers and staff on board. The remnants of the plane and the bodies were scattered across the fields on the ground. 

Shortly thereafter 10 members of the IRGC, who were all involved in the decision to shoot down the plane, were put on trial and convicted, with the military commander, the main person responsible for the disaster, being given a 13-year long prison sentence.  

The judiciary sentence gives little to no consolation to the family members of those who had been torn to shreds as a result of the IRGC being unable to distinguish a passenger plane from a military aircraft. In an attempt to seek justice “The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims” was founded. It is made up of people like Hamed Esmaeilion, the association's spokesperson until March 2023, whose wife Parisa and daughter Reera had been on flight PS752. For years members of the association have been fighting relentlessly to not only let the entire world know about how their mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, friends, and colleagues had died a horrific death but to hold those accountable that had made the decision to end the lives of 176 innocent people. 

Imagine this: You arrive at the airport half an hour before your family is scheduled to return from their vacation. You roam around the parking lot trying to find a vacant space to park your car in but there are no free slots because everyone is on their way to either drop someone they love off or pick someone they love up from their travels. You make another turn and then you find it: a free parking spot. It is a bit farther away from what you had anticipated but you are still going to arrive at the terminal on time. You are finally there and you wait. And you wait. And you wait. Waiting is normal at airports. Everybody does it. It's an ordinary thing to do. But you wait too long and no one shows up. The next thing you know is you're informed that the people you love most in the world have been killed.