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U.S. Believes Ukraine Plane Was Shot Down by Iran: U.S. Official

29 points by po_ 7y ago

duxup 7y ago
I was thinking with all the military action going on, someone had to have pretty good coverage looking for missile launches. It raises the question how you even can manage having an active / ready to fire anti-air system online and commercial planes active?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
kjhughes 7y ago
CNN article has no paywall: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/09/politics/is-iran-ukraine-plane/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/09/politics/is-iran-ukraine-plan... The CNN article says that Newsweek was first to report the story: https://www.newsweek.com/iranians-shot-down-ukraine-flight-mistake-sources-1481313 https://www.newsweek.com/iranians-shot-down-ukraine-flight-m...
ra7 7y ago
The interesting thing is NYT reporting that the aircraft had turned back towards Tehran airport before crashing. That could be a sign of technical troubles or the aircraft was warned to return to the airport because of active AA systems in the area.
- sdinsn 7y ago
  The NYT stated that the aircraft turned back towards the airport after it was hit by the missile. They said that it continued flying for "several minutes" before exploding and crashing.
  - hackeraccount 7y ago
    If that was the case it would have been horrifying.
gnicholas 7y ago
from the CNN article: One possibility being considered is that an Iranian missile unit saw something on their radar, thought they were under attack and fired. This is one danger of brinksmanship, which is that people's fingers are hovering a little too close to the trigger. If that is indeed what happened here, we can only hope that the powers that be realize that their saber-rattling was a cause of these deaths.
- metalliqaz 7y ago
  > the powers that be So Khamenei and Trump. I wouldn't count on it.
- derision 7y ago
  So you propose we should have let Iran continue to kill Americans?
- mthoms 7y ago
  Exactly. It reminds me not only of the Ukrainian airliner shot down by Russian-backed forces in 2014 but also of the Iranian Airlines jet shot down by the USS Vincennes in 1988. So tragic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
  - DerpyBaby123 7y ago
    That is not what OP proposed, please comment in good faith and avoid strawmen
    - gnicholas 7y ago
      I think you replied to the wrong comment.
      - metalliqaz 7y ago
        The comment he meant to reply to seems to have been removed. It was something like "would you rather we let Iran kill Americans" or some BS like that.
mech1234 7y ago
I encourage everyone to read AV Herald- a site closely linked to the aviation community. Their coverage of this developing story is impressive. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1aea51&opt=0 http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1aea51&opt=0
dsalzman 7y ago
"Of the 176 people on board, 82 were Iranian, 63 were Canadian and 11 were Ukrainian (including nine crewmembers), along with 10 Swedish, seven Afghan and three German nationals. None survived." What a tragedy.
sleepysysadmin 7y ago
Plane took off and according to Iranians had a 1 in a million chance engine fire. The plane continues to fly, it has multiple engines for redundancy. The video showing a missile hitting a plane and later catching fire and crashing. Pictures of a missile at the crash site; shrapnel damage on the plane for sure. Unclear if it's legit or not, but lets say it's legit. It was shot down. If it were Iran who shot it down. Why were there multiple people awake in the middle of the night recording a dark sky on the off chance Iran shoots their own plane down? If it were the Iran government they wouldn't want evidence like that. Why were the Americans so quick at being able to say Iran shot down the plane? Is it perhaps because (label group here) had an Iranian AA missile to use in Tehran. Had their agents record the missile attack so that they could blame Iran? That's the more likely story. Interesting how Trump was very untrumplike calling for peace earlier. Interesting how there were no American citizens on that plane. Not sure who did it.
- dekhn 7y ago
  stop with conspiracy theories.

29 points by po_ 7y ago

I was thinking with all the military action going on, someone had to have pretty good coverage looking for missile launches. It raises the question how you even can manage having an active / ready to fire anti-air system online and commercial planes active?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

kjhughes 7y ago

CNN article has no paywall: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/09/politics/is-iran-ukraine-plane/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/09/politics/is-iran-ukraine-plan... The CNN article says that Newsweek was first to report the story: https://www.newsweek.com/iranians-shot-down-ukraine-flight-mistake-sources-1481313 https://www.newsweek.com/iranians-shot-down-ukraine-flight-m...

ra7 7y ago

The interesting thing is NYT reporting that the aircraft had turned back towards Tehran airport before crashing. That could be a sign of technical troubles or the aircraft was warned to return to the airport because of active AA systems in the area.

sdinsn 7y ago
The NYT stated that the aircraft turned back towards the airport after it was hit by the missile. They said that it continued flying for "several minutes" before exploding and crashing.
- hackeraccount 7y ago
  If that was the case it would have been horrifying.

gnicholas 7y ago

from the CNN article: One possibility being considered is that an Iranian missile unit saw something on their radar, thought they were under attack and fired. This is one danger of brinksmanship, which is that people's fingers are hovering a little too close to the trigger. If that is indeed what happened here, we can only hope that the powers that be realize that their saber-rattling was a cause of these deaths.

metalliqaz 7y ago
> the powers that be So Khamenei and Trump. I wouldn't count on it.
derision 7y ago
So you propose we should have let Iran continue to kill Americans?
mthoms 7y ago
Exactly. It reminds me not only of the Ukrainian airliner shot down by Russian-backed forces in 2014 but also of the Iranian Airlines jet shot down by the USS Vincennes in 1988. So tragic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
- DerpyBaby123 7y ago
  That is not what OP proposed, please comment in good faith and avoid strawmen
  - gnicholas 7y ago
    I think you replied to the wrong comment.
    - metalliqaz 7y ago
      The comment he meant to reply to seems to have been removed. It was something like "would you rather we let Iran kill Americans" or some BS like that.

mech1234 7y ago

I encourage everyone to read AV Herald- a site closely linked to the aviation community. Their coverage of this developing story is impressive. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1aea51&opt=0 http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1aea51&opt=0

dsalzman 7y ago

"Of the 176 people on board, 82 were Iranian, 63 were Canadian and 11 were Ukrainian (including nine crewmembers), along with 10 Swedish, seven Afghan and three German nationals. None survived." What a tragedy.

sleepysysadmin 7y ago

Plane took off and according to Iranians had a 1 in a million chance engine fire. The plane continues to fly, it has multiple engines for redundancy. The video showing a missile hitting a plane and later catching fire and crashing. Pictures of a missile at the crash site; shrapnel damage on the plane for sure. Unclear if it's legit or not, but lets say it's legit. It was shot down. If it were Iran who shot it down. Why were there multiple people awake in the middle of the night recording a dark sky on the off chance Iran shoots their own plane down? If it were the Iran government they wouldn't want evidence like that. Why were the Americans so quick at being able to say Iran shot down the plane? Is it perhaps because (label group here) had an Iranian AA missile to use in Tehran. Had their agents record the missile attack so that they could blame Iran? That's the more likely story. Interesting how Trump was very untrumplike calling for peace earlier. Interesting how there were no American citizens on that plane. Not sure who did it.

dekhn 7y ago
stop with conspiracy theories.