We won't get anywhere with the political side of this.
There is a difficult engineering problem to solve, that we can look at, and our talents (as engineers, not diplomats) are better suited to dealing with.
[ul]
[li]How does one conduct an investigation with integrity when actions have been taken to undermine the investigation?[/li]
[li]How does an investigator communicate the value of examining wreckage to persons in power that would rather bury it?[/li]
[li]Are the investigators themselves facing risks when they pursue an investigation of this kind?[/li]
[li]Will the world at large (or more to the point, the families of the victims) accept the results of any investigation possible now?[/li]
[/ul]
Questions like these and more are what concern me the most.
As for the state of the wreckage:
[ul]
[li]The debris has already been removed from the site.[/li]
[li]The crash site has not been closed or isolated.[/li]
[li]The FDR and CVR have been found but have not been protected.[/li]
[li]The FDR and CVR may or may not be turned over to competent authorities.[/li]
[/ul]
And as for investigating the decision to fire:
[ul]
[li]Who actually gave the command?[/li]
[li]Was a human decision actually made?[/li]
[li]Were safeguards removed from the launch system?[/li]
[li]Did the operator have adequate training?[/li]
[li]How was the target identified?[/li]
[li]How do revolutionary guard installations distinguish civilian targets?[/li]
[li]Did the delayed take-off confuse the identification?[/li]
[li]How do airports, airlines, military, and revolutionary guard communicate in Iran?[/li]
[/ul]
And, of course... "What else are they lying about?"
And on the Ukrainian airline's side:
[ul]
[li]Did the airline know that the US and Iran had started shooting at each other?[/li]
[li]If they knew, did they do a threat assessment?[/li]
[li]Did the aircraft fly a normal departure route?[/li]
[li]Do airliners require special equipment to maintain friendly IDENT in Iranian airspace?[/li]
[li]Was the airliner's ADS-B working properly at the time?[/li]
[/ul]
I figure about half of my questions will never be answered.
I don't think it's safe for anyone to be flying anything over Iran right now, nor will be for the near future.
And yet - there are dozens of Canadians in a desperate rush to get to Iran to investigate, to grieve, to put the pieces of their lives back together.
The situation is still dangerous, and may be getting even more dangerous soon.