"A mistake in aligning the radar system had caused human error. An operator had forgotten to re-adjust the direction on the radar system after moving to a new position, an error that contributed to misreading the radar's data," an interim report on the Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) website said.
The CAO report, which was published on late Saturday, said the missile battery that targeted the passenger plane had been relocated and "was not properly reoriented".
The downing occurred at a time of high tension between longtime foes Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
and the United States. Iran was on alert for attacks after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing on Jan. 3 of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani
, in a U.S. missile strike at Baghdad airport."A failure occurred after the relocation of one of the air defence units of Tehran ... It occurred because of a human error," the CAO report said, adding that the plane was detected by the system as a target approaching Tehran.
The operator of the air defence system "lacked awareness of the relocation of the air defence unit", and fired the two missiles without authorisation from the command centre, the report said.
"When the first missile was fired, the passenger plane was flying at a normal altitude and trajectory," the report added.
Last month, Iran said the black boxes of the Boeing 737-800 airliner will be sent to La Belle France, to be analysed starting July 20.