Can an airline walk away from a tragedy by invoking international payment caps? Not this time.

Ontario’s Superior Court just delivered a crushing blow to Ukraine International Airlines, upholding a ruling that strips the carrier of its right to limit compensation for the 176 people killed when flight PS752 was shot down over Tehran, Iran, in 2020.

The court’s reasoning? UIA acted negligently because it “failed to assess the risks associated with operating flights from Tehran.” That single finding changes everything for the families seeking justice.

Here’s why this matters. Under international aviation law, airlines typically pay up to $180,000 per passenger when fault is proven. But when negligence enters the picture? Those caps disappear. 

This determination allows victims’ families to seek compensation beyond the standard international aviation limits.

The Ontario Court of Appeal wasn’t buying UIA’s challenge either. “I dismiss the appeal, ordering court costs to be paid by the appellant in favor of the defendants,” the court stated. 

What actually happened that January morning?

January 8, 2020. Tehran’s airport. A Boeing 737-800 climbs into the dawn sky carrying 176 people on board—11 Ukrainians, plus citizens from Iran, Canada, Britain and Afghanistan, all of them died.

Minutes later, Iranian forces shoot it down. 

Why? They mistook the civilian aircraft for a hostile military target. Iran initially denied responsibility, then admitted what officials called a “catastrophic mistake” three days later.

The timing tells the story. Hours earlier, Iran had launched missile strikes on US military bases in Iraq, retaliating for the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Tensions were sky-high.

Could this have been prevented?

That’s the million-dollar question the Canadian court answered with a resounding yes.

French investigators decoded both flight recorders in July 2020. The data confirmed what Ukraine suspected: the aircraft was functioning normally when the missile struck. No mechanical failure. No pilot error.

The plane was fine. The decision to fly wasn’t.

Why is Iran’s investigation controversial?

The Iranian probe has drawn fire from multiple countries. In February 2021, UN special rapporteurs accused Iran of violating international law and conducting a non-transparent investigation riddled with “inaccuracies.”

Ukraine joined that criticism. So did other affected nations.

Iran did sentence 10 military personnel in April, according to reports. But details? Those remain classified.

What happens now?

UIA can no longer hide behind international treaty provisions that would have capped compensation payments. The airline faces potentially massive financial exposure.

For the families, this ruling represents more than money. It’s acknowledgment that their loved ones died because of preventable negligence—not just Iranian missiles, but Ukrainian miscalculation.

A person claiming to be a Russian officer said he had received an order to open fire at an aerial target last December that turned out to be an Azerbaijani airliner, Azerbaijani news outlet Minval reported on July 1, citing audio and a written statement it had received.

An Embraer 190AR plane operated by Azarbaijan Airlines crashed in Kazakhstan on Dec. 25, 2024, after coming under fire over Grozny, Chechnya. Thirty-eight people were killed.

Azerbaijani authorities laid blame on Russia, with an investigation pointing to a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system mistakenly targeting the plane amid a reported Ukrainian drone attack.

Minval wrote it had received three audio recordings, an anonymous letter, and an explanatory note by a man signed as Captain Dmitry Paladichuk, a Russian air defense crew captain who claims to have relayed the order to shoot down the plane.

In the purported explanatory note, Paladichuk said he had no reliable means of communication with the Russian military command other than a cell connection. A radar detected a target at 8:11 a.m. local time, after which Paladichuk was reportedly ordered to destroy the aircraft — which was not visible due to thick fog — over the phone.

The captain claimed that after the first projectile missed the target, he had given the order to fire again. Paladichuk did not explicitly name the Azerbaijani flight in his explanatory letter.

Minval wrote that it could not confirm the authenticity of the written statement but could do so for the three leaked voice messages, which also confirmed the command to shoot down the plane and the subsequent damage.

Russian independent news outlets Agentstvo and the Insider confirmed Paladichuk's identity as an air defense officer who served in various units, including the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense in Novosibirsk.

The Insider also wrote that the note appears to be authentic, and pointed out that the speed of the plane, revealed in the leaked materials, shows that the Russian command must have known the target was not a drone.

The incident led to a public clash between Azerbaijan and Russia, otherwise close political and economic partners. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Moscow of suppressing evidence and criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for not openly admitting guilt.

Putin offered condolences for the incident taking place in the Russian airspace, but stopped short of admitting Russian responsibility.

New details of the case emerge just as Russian-Azerbaijani relations sour yet again. Over 50 Azerbaijanis were detained as part of a murder investigation in Yekaterinburg on June 27, two of whom died in custody.

Baku called their deaths "ethnically motivated" and "unlawful" killings. A few days later, Azerbaijani authorities raided an office of the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik in Baku, detaining who they say are Russian spies.

Iran summons Ukraine’s envoy, warns of ‘consequences’ over comments on Israeli, US strikes

Highlighting Iran’s support for Russian aggression against Ukraine, Kyiv has previously called for the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program to prevent it from threatening the Middle East or the wider world.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek