A Canadian law firm has launched a class action lawsuit on behalf of the families of the 176 people who died when Iran shot down a Ukrainian plane on Jan. 8.
Himelfarb Proszanski, a law firm based in Toronto, said New York litigation funding company Galactic Litigation Partners LLC will fund the legal effort.
Ukrainian International Airline flight 752 crashed just after taking off from Tehran on Jan. 8. Initially, the Iranian government claimed technical failures were to blame but it has since admitted its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. mistakenly shot down the plane, killing all 176 on board.
Canada, which lost 57 of its own in the crash, and the international community have called for Iran to complete a thorough investigation and compensate the victims’ families.
The law firm said the flight took off despite the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration banning civilian flights over Iran. Although the Ukrainian airline is not subject to U.S. flight bans, the law firm said many airlines respect such FAA notices, and that other airlines rerouted their flights due to general unrest in the region after the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
“Flight PS752 departed despite the known risks,” the law firm said.
The class action has not yet been certified by the courts and none of the allegations have been proven in courtl
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