Airline: Unlikely that crash was due to "error"

Given the level of the crew's experience, it's unlikely that the plane crash was the result of error, Ukrainian International Airlines vice president of operations Ihor Sosnovsky said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tehran airport is anything but a simple one. Therefore, for several years UIA has been using this airport to conduct training on Boeing 737 aircraft aimed at evaluating pilots' proficiency and ability to act in emergency cases. According to our records, the aircraft ascended as high as 2,400 meters. Given the crew's experience, error probability is minimal. We do not even consider such a chance.”

The airline also released the names of the pilots and crew, who died in the crash.

The pilots were:

• Captain Volodymyr Gaponenko (11,600 hours on Boeing 737 aircraft including 5,500 hours as captain)
• Instructor pilot Oleksiy Naumkin (12,000 hours on Boeing 737 aircraft including 6,600 hours as captain)
• First officer Serhii Khomenko (7,600 hours on Boeing 737 aircraft)

The flight attendants were:

• Ihor Matkov, chief flight attendant
• Kateryna Statnik
• Mariia Mykytiuk
• Valeriia Ovcharuk
• Yuliia Solohub
• Denys Lykhno