According to Pentagon, US Intelligence, and Iraqi intelligence officials, the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s international airport on Wednesday January 8 was downed by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile system.
US Intelligence officials suspect that the Boeing 737-800 jet was targeted by Iran after a radar system was detected to have been turned on before two missiles were launched.
President Trump, when asked about the crash on Thursday January 9, suggested that “someone could have made a mistake on the other side.”
Despite denial from Iran, Ukrainian investigators have stated their intention to search the wreckage for missile fragments as they have not ruled out a terror attack as a potential cause of the crash.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, stated that “A strike by a missile, possibly a Tor missile system, is among the main (theories), as information has surfaced on the internet about elements of a missile being found near the site of the crash.”
If this theory is confirmed, it would reflect poorly on the Iranian government, as 82 of the 176 victims on the Ukrainian plane were Iranians.
Iranian investigators have refused to hand over the damaged black box recordings to international investigators, insisting that parts of the recordings were lost in the accident.
Viral CCTV footage showed the burning airplane lighting up a dark street before exploding into a huge fireball. The explosion caused the flaming debris from the Boeing 737 to scatter in different directions, resulting in the tragic death of all 176 people on board.
A team of Ukrainian missile specialists has been dispatched to Iran to investigate the possibility of a shoot-down and to examine if a Russian-made weapon could have brought down the plane. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who declared a day of national mourning after the crash, has vowed to uncover the truth about the incident.