
Iran has bulldozed the crash site where a passenger jet came down two days ago, sparking fears of a cover-up after Tehran today denied the West's 'big lie' that Iranian missiles shot down the plane.

It comes as Ukraine has been granted access to the plane's black box flight recorders, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Friday.

He added that they were receiving 'full cooperation' from the Iranian authorities. Kiev sent around 50 experts to Iran to take part in the probe after the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 went down near Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board.

The debris of the Boeing 737 has been removed from the crash site near Tehran before Ukrainian investigators have even arrived - leaving the site at the mercy of scavengers.

Iran earlier today said that it is 'opening' the plane's black boxes but has indicated it will not allow the US government to analyse their contents.

Washington and its allies believe that the plane was shot down by two Iranian surface-to-air missiles which were launched and detected by satellites just minutes after the airliner took off.

Footage which emerged last night showed the Ukraine International Airlines jet exploding in mid-air after it was hit.

It is feared that Iranian forces may have mistaken the passenger plane for a military jet, hours after Iran launched missile strikes on US bases in Iraq.

Justin Trudeau, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have all pointed the finger at Iran as a chorus of Western countries rejected Iran's explanation of a technical failure and NATO also backed the shoot-down theory today.

Iran accused the US of waging 'psychological warfare' and inventing a 'big lie' as it denied the claims today.

The crisis forced Western planes heading to Tehran to turn around in mid-air last night, with many airlines now avoiding Iranian airspace.

America's Federal Aviation Administration had banned US airlines from flying over Iran just hours before the crash, potentially saving American lives from a misdirected shoot-down.

Bulldozers clean up debris at the crash site on Wednesday, just hours after the Ukraine International Airlines jet came down

A bulldozer is seen at the crash site on Wednesday as rescuers combed through the remains of the crashed Boeing plane

Rescue workers pile debris into a bulldozer following the crash which Western governments believe was caused by two Iranian missiles

A black box recovered from the crashed Boeing 737 is examined today with Tehran saying it wants to handle the flight recorders itself

An image of anti-aircraft missile debris, supposedly from near the site of the downed Ukrainian Airlines flight, was widely shared on social media

Footage which emerged last night showed the Ukraine International Airlines jet exploding in mid-air after it was hit, killing all 167 passengers and nine crew on board

A satellite image taken yesterday shows the area where the Ukraine International Airlines jet crashed shortly after take-off

An image from the flight tracker website Flightradar24 showing the path of the Ukranian International Airlines jet which crashed just over two minutes after taking off from Tehran

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau (pictured last night) led Western governments in blaming an Iranian missile strike for the Ukrainian International Airlines crash which killed 176 people

Mourners wave flags outside Downing Street today during a vigil for the victims of the Iranian air disaster

How long does it take to read the contents of a black box? If a black box is not damaged, its contents could be downloaded in a matter of minutes. The flight recorders are designed to withstand the impact of a crash, but may be burned or dented, meaning it can take weeks to retrieve the data. The International Aviation Safety Association explains that a damaged black box will need to have its memory card removed, cleaned and attached to a working recorder. The new recorder will retrieve the data, allowing investigators to analyse the contents. Iran has said the black boxes on the Ukrainian International Airlines plane may be damaged and could need international expertise to be analysed. Pictures broadcast on Iranian state TV showed one of the boxes looking charred and battered but fundamentally intact. Tehran has issued a range of conflicting statements about who will be allowed to help analyse the results. The boxes are designed to store second-by-second information including on speed, altitude, engine performance and flight trajectory. They also record conversations between the pilots and flight attendants as well as other sounds on board, including possible alarms. To make them easier to find, they are bright orange (despite the name) and fitted with a beacon which can emit a signal for one month. They are also designed to survive fire and lengthy periods underwater. Advertisement

Visiting the crash site today, CBS reporter Elizabeth Palmer said 'virtually all pieces of the plane' had been removed with no security around the site and scavengers now scouring the remaining debris.

Bulldozers were seen at the crash site just hours after the plane came down and it is feared that valuable evidence could have been compromised or lost.

Ukraine says its investigators have been granted permission to look for missile fragments, but they were nowhere in sight by the time the debris was removed.

The Ukrainian investigators are also interested in an image which circulated on Wednesday night and appeared to show the charred remnants of a rocket, but has not yet been verified.

Tehran claims the crash was caused by a technical fault but Western governments came down firmly on the side of a shoot-down last night, saying the plane had been brought down by two Iranian missiles.

Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran's national aviation department, denied the allegations today at a news conference in Tehran.

'One thing is for certain, this aeroplane was not hit by a missile,' he said.

Changing Iran's story, he said the pilot had asked to turn back to the airport after the engine caught fire - although Tehran previously said the crew had not reported any problems.

The black box flight recorders are being 'opened' today but could be faulty and may be sent to Russia or Canada to be analysed, Abedzadeh said.

He said it could take one or two months to extract information from the boxes, which contain the voice and flight data recorders.

'We prefer to download the black boxes in Iran. But if we see that we can't do that because the boxes are damaged, then we will seek help,' he said.

Iran previously said it would not share the black boxes with Boeing, but today invited the company to help investigate them.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei also invited 'all those countries whose citizens were aboard the plane' to send representatives - which does not include the US.

Bulldozers have been operating at the crash site before Ukrainian investigators even arrived - sparking fears of an Iranian cover-up

A large piece of debris is towed away by a bulldozer, with the crash site now unsupervised and left open to scavengers

An Iranian diplomat bizarrely denied that bulldozers had been clearing debris - despite this photographic evidence

A bulldozer works at the scene on Wednesday - since when the crash site has apparently been left unsupervised

Bulldozers were being used at the crash site as early as Wednesday, hours after the disaster took place (pictured)

Dismissing the US claims, government spokesman Rabiei said: 'It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government and those supporting it are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimising them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies.

'No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the claim had been fraudulent,' he was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Iran's ambassador to Britain Hamid Baeidinejad later bizarrely denied that debris had been bulldozed from the crash site despite the photographic evidence of bulldozers at the scene.

Speaking to Sky News, he said he was 'confident from our side that there has been no missile launched in that area at that time'.

Russia also came to the defence of its ally Iran, accusing the West of 'trying to score political points' and insisting it was too early to blame an Iranian missile.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov called the assertions of a missile strike 'unacceptable' and 'at the very least indecent'.

'One shouldn't try to score political points on this horrible human tragedy. It is important to allow specialists to analyze the situation and make conclusions,' he said.

Despite Iran's attempts to freeze Washington out of the probe, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo offered American help to Ukraine in investigating the crash today.

Ukraine said it had received data from the United States that would be processed by experts, without elaborating on the nature of the data.

'Grateful for the condolences of the American people and valuable support of the US in investigating the causes of the plane crash,' Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said. 'Information obtained from the U.S. will assist in the investigation.'

Boeing, which has been dealt another blow after two deadly crashes on its 737 Max range threw the company into crisis last year, said today it was working with US regulators as it tries to assist the investigation.

Because of US sanctions, the company will need approval from the Treasury Department to send representatives to Iran.

One of the black boxes from the Ukraine International Airlines jet. Iran says it wants to download the data itself

Iran has issued contradictory statements about who will be allowed to examine the black boxes (pictured)

A woman lays a candle at a vigil in London today held by the Anglo-Iranian Communities in the UK and supporters of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran

Posters depicting Hassan Rouhani and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lie on the ground during a vigil in London today

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he has serious doubts that the Ukrainian plane crash in Iran was caused by mechanical failure after Pentagon officials claimed that the jet was shot down

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei (pictured) accused the West of 'psychological warfare' after US satellite data showed surface-to-air missiles being launched at the jet

Rescuers examine the wreckage of the Boeing 737 after it crashed on Wednesday morning following what Western governments believe was a missile strike

Wreckage of the plane which investigators in Iran say was trying to turn back to the airport when it crashed as the result of a mechanical fault, killing 176 people

Iran is 'one or two years' away from a nuclear weapon if it breaches deal, France warns Iran could have nuclear weapons within two years if it continues to breach its 2015 deal with the West, France has warned. French foreign minister Yves Le Drian said Iran was 'between one and two years' away from being nuclear-armed if it entirely abandoned the pact. 'If they continue with unravelling the Vienna agreement, then yes, within a fairly short period of time, between one and two years, they could have access to a nuclear weapon, which is not an option,' he told French radio. Iran has taken a series of steps away from the deal in recent months, announcing after Soleimani's death that it was no longer abiding by any of the enrichment limits. Donald Trump abandoned the deal in May 2018 and re-imposed tough US sanctions on Iran, but European powers want to keep it alive. Tehran has said it is willing to return to the limits if its demands are met, which include greater European efforts to bypass US sanctions. Under the deal, Tehran had pledged to reduce its nuclear capacities for several years, including by capping its enrichment of uranium at 3.67 per cent, far below the more than 90 per cent required for a nuclear weapon. Once a country enriches uranium to around 20 per cent, scientists say the time needed to reach 90 per cent is halved. Iran continues to insist that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon. EU foreign ministers are today holding an emergency meeting in a bid to de-escalate the Middle East crisis. Advertisement

The Iranian denial is unsurprising and Tehran has a history of issuing such statements, including last summer when it denied involvement in mysterious attacks on Gulf shipping.

In June 2019 the Pentagon released footage of Iranian special forces removing an unexploded limpet mine from the side of a ship. Iran similarly labelled it 'psychological warfare'.

Moreover the Iranian regime, which has faced protests in recent months, will be highly reluctant to accept blame for a crash which killed dozens of its own citizens.

Justin Trudeau, who has demanded answers for the families of 63 Canadians killed in the crash, said last night he had 'intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence' pointing to a shoot-down.

'The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile,' he said, adding that the strike 'may well have been unintentional'.

'This new information reinforces the need for a thorough investigation into this matter,' he said.

'Canada is working with its allies to ensure that a thorough and credible investigation is conducted to determine the causes of this fatal crash. Canadians have questions and they deserve answers.'

Ukraine's general prosecutor has asked Canada 'to provide information available to the Canadian side that may facilitate criminal investigations' into the crash.

Donald Trump also rejected Iran's claims of a mechanical fault.

'It was flying in a pretty rough neighbourhood. Somebody could have made a mistake,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

'I have a feeling that something very terrible happened, very devastating.'

UK prime minister Boris Johnson said there was 'now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile', saying it 'may well have been unintentional'.

'We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation,' he said.

Today Britain's Foreign Office advised British nationals not to travel to Iran at all, after previously warning against non-essential travel.

'We also recommend against taking a flight to, from and within Iran,' said foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

The US State Department has already told US citizens not to travel to Iran.

Australian PM Scott Morrison said his country had 'received similar intelligence' to that which Trudeau had cited, while France has also offered help with the investigation.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said today he had 'no reason not to believe' the claims of US, British and Canadian intelligence.

The missile concerns were 'exactly why we need thorough investigation, that's exactly why we need to establish all the facts and that's exactly why it's so important we have full cooperation from the Iranian side in such an investigation,' he said.

The Netherlands also joined in the chorus today, as defence minister Ank Bijleveld said it was 'likely an Iranian anti-aircraft missile has led to the crash of the aircraft'.

'Unfortunately the Netherlands has experience from MH17,' he said, referring to the 2014 crash which killed 296 people including many Dutch citizens after it was shot down over Ukraine.

Satellite data detected the heat signatures of two surface-to-air missiles being launched just minutes after the Boeing 737 took off, the US government says.

That was quickly followed by an explosion, officials say, before infrared emissions from the plane showed it burning as it crashed to the ground.

Multiple videos have shown the plane already ablaze before it hit the ground.

Rescue teams gather at the scene after a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers crashed near Imam Khomeini airport in the Iranian capital

Questions were first raised when pictures of the plane debris appeared to show shrapnel holes in the fuselage. US officials now say they detected two missile launches just before an explosion, believed to have come from the jet

A Ukraine International Airlines employee lays a candle at a Kyiv airport memorial for the nine crew members killed in the air disaster

Tehran-bound flights turned round last night after Western leaders blamed a missile strike for the crash.

With a coincidental engine failure ruled out, there are now fears that an accidental missile strike could happen again, meaning many airlines are avoiding Iranian airspace.

The FAA had banned US-based operators from the airspace over Iran three hours before the crash took place and the ban remains in force.

Austrian Airlines said it was cancelling its flight to Tehran on Friday 'due to the latest reports and the changed assessment of the security situation for the airspace around Tehran airport'.

Thursday's flight to Tehran was ordered to return to Vienna after a stopover in Sofia, the statement added.

Lufthansa - the parent company of Austrian - said its flight between Frankfurt and Tehran on Thursday had returned an hour after takeoff because of security concerns.

British Airways has also diverted flights via Egypt and Saudi Arabia to avoid Iranian airspace on the way to the Middle East.

Etihad Airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates Airline are still using the airspace, which remains open.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, holds a candle on Parliament Hill during a vigil for the victims who were killed in the plane crash

Ukraine has said the plane could have been shot down by a Russian-made Tor missile, the weapon believed to have brought down MH17 in 2014.

'Undoubtedly, the priority for Ukraine is to identify the causes of the plane crash. We will surely find out the truth,' he said.

It is not widely believed that Iran shot down the passenger jet on purpose, especially because it had taken off from Tehran with 82 Iranian nationals on board.

However, tensions were at their height on Tuesday night after Iran attacked US bases and it is feared that nervous Iranian air defence forces could have mistaken the plane for a bomber.

Kyiv yesterday sent missile specialists to examine the wreckage of the Boeing jet, saying a shoot-down was one of the 'main theories'.

Questions were raised within hours of the crash when pictures showed part of the fuselage peppered with holes.

A special commission of experts sent to Tehran includes specialists who found evidence that the Russian weapon had brought down MH17.

Ukraine also referred to images which circulated on Wednesday night showing what appeared to be the charred remnants of a rocket.

The images were unverified and could be a hoax, but Ukraine said the 'information [which] has surfaced on the internet' had bolstered the missile strike theory.

The Canadian prime minister, at a vigil for the victims of the plane crash, was the first world leader to say Iran had downed the passenger jet

The Ukrainian airliner crashed in farmland just after take off from Imam Khomeini International Airport. A section of rocket was said to have been found in front of a home in the city of Parand

A makeshift memorial to Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani has sprung up near Baghdad airport (pictured), where the general was killed in a US drone strike seven days ago

Russia delivered 29 Tor-M1s to Iran in 2007, and Iran has displayed them in military parades.

Commercial flights have transponders which broadcast their identity, speed and altitude at an internationally agreed frequency. Flight 752 would have been visible on the radar screen of the Tor battery.

The US National Transportation Safety Board said late last night that it would 'evaluate its level of participation in the investigation.'

The extent of the NTSB's role could be limited by US sanctions on Iran.

The claims and counter-claims over the crash have sent tensions ratcheting up again after Iran's relatively inconsequential strikes on US bases had sparked hopes that the Middle East crisis was calming.

Iran has sent mixed signals over whether its retaliation for the death of general Qassem Soleimani is complete.

Soleimani was killed last Friday in a drone strike near Baghdad airport, where a makeshift memorial to the Quds Force commander has since sprung up.

The general was regarded as a hero by many Iranians and his death sparked a huge outpouring of public grief.

A million people are thought to have joined a funeral march in Tehran on Monday, although the proceedings descended into chaos on Tuesday when a stampede killed more than 50 people in Soleimani's home town.