Iran plane crash most likely ‘shootdown event’, aviation experts say

[Meatpie]

Doubts have been cast over Iranian assertions that a deadly Ukrainian plane crash near Tehran was the result of technical failures, with independent aviation operations experts saying a “shootdown” was the most likely explanation.

Iranian officials said technical issues were behind the Ukrainian International Airlines (UIA) crash, which happened shortly after take-off from Imam Khomeini International Airport on Wednesday morning, killing all 176 people on board.


The Ukrainian embassy in Tehran initially echoed this stance, but later retracted its statement, and instead said it was for an official commission to determine the cause of the accident.

While some aviation experts said it was too early to speculate, the OPS group, an aviation risk monitoring group, said: “We would recommend the starting assumption to be that this was a shootdown event, similar to MH17 – until there is clear evidence to the contrary," highlighting photos of the crash site which they said "show obvious projectile holes in the fuselage and a wing section."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1578490015

 

[Meatpie]

Iran mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian plane that crashed on Wednesday near Tehran with 176 people on board.

US officials say they believe the Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800 was hit by a missile, CBS says.
Ukraine earlier said it was examining whether a missile strike brought down the aircraft - but Iran ruled this out.
The crash came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51055219

 

[Meatpie]

Western intelligence sources told the Guardian that their assessment suggested two surface-to-air missiles had targeted the plane.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-by-iranian-missile-western-officials-believe

 

[Meatpie]

Images circulating online of what an Iranian activist said was a missile head photographed near the crash site.