Cartoon by Joep Bertrams

Canadian law firm launches class action on behalf of Iran flight victims

Terrace Standard: A Canadian law firm has launched a class action on behalf of the families of the 176 people who died when Iran shot down a Ukrainian plane on Jan. 8.

Himelfarb Proszanski, based in Toronto, said New York litigation funding company Galactic Litigation Partners LLC will fund the class action.

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 have 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 that the flight took off despite the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration banning civillian flights over Iran. Although the Ukrainian airline is not subject to U.S. flight bans, the law firm said “many airlines respect FAA notices when making safety decisions,” and that other airlines did reroute 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.