Ukrainian airliner crashes in Iran, killing all 176 aboard
By: Mohammad Nasiri, Nasser Karimi, and Jon Gambrell
Now a tragedy unfolds. Hysterical journalists have suddenly become reticent to speculate. The news organizations breathlessly promoted the most outrageous speculations about the President's 'criminal behavior' and intent to turn the Middle East into another Vietnam. Dire warnings were issued, stock markets fell, and grim faced pundits prepared the public for the end of civilization as we know it.
The aftermath of 180 lives being ended abruptly in the dark of night now requires careful scrutiny of the facts without speculation. There is little doubt that an over zealous seeker of revenge against the United States has caused this tragedy. The evidence indicates that an Iranian anti-aircraft battery brought down the airliner. That wouldn't be surprising considering the natural tensions arising from a possible counter strike by the United States. The fog of war and human frailties can cause tragedies; that's part and parcel with warfare.
The question not being asked is why did the Iranian government allow commercial flights to continue while it was conducting military operations?
180 people are dead. That is a tragedy that should not be treated lightly. While blaming the ground crew of an anti-craft battery might be expedient and satisfying, the real blame should be directed toward a government that treats military operations in such a cavalier manner.
The hysterical press has been pointing fingers and voicing outrage over a war that was never going to happen. The silence of the press now that a tragedy has occurred is deafening.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people crashed on the outskirts of Tehran during a takeoff attempt Wednesday hours after Iran launched its missile attack on U.S. forces, scattering flaming debris and passengers’ belongings across farmland and killing everyone on board.
The Iranian military disputed any suggestion the plane had been blown out of the sky by a missile, and Iranian aviation authorities said they suspected a mechanical problem brought down the 3½-year-old Boeing 737. Ukrainian officials initially agreed but later backed away and declined to offer a cause while the investigation is going on.
The Ukraine International Airlines jet was en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, at least 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
Many of the passengers were believed to be international students attending universities in Canada; they were making their way back to Toronto by way of Kyiv after visiting with family during the winter break. The manifest included several teenagers and children, some as young as 1 or 2.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy cut short a visit to Oman to return to Kyiv and said a team of Ukrainian experts would go to Tehran to help investigate the crash.
“Our priority is to find the truth and everyone responsible for the tragedy,” he wrote in a Facebook statement.
In Canada, where the crash ranked among the worst losses of life for Canadians in an aviation disaster, the flag over Parliament in Ottawa was lowered to half-staff, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country is “shocked and saddened.” He vowed the government will work to “ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated and that Canadians’ questions are answered.”
Major world airlines Wednesday rerouted flights crossing the Middle East to avoid danger amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration barred American flights from certain Persian Gulf airspace, warning of the “potential for miscalculation or misidentification” of civilian aircraft.
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport by almost an hour. It never made it above 8,000 feet, crashing just minutes after takeoff, according to data from the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran’s Road and Transportation Ministry, said it appeared a fire erupted in one of its engines and the pilot lost control of the plane, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. The news report did not explain how Iranian authorities knew that.
The pilot apparently couldn’t communicate with air-traffic controllers in Tehran in the last moments of the flight, said Hassan Razaeifar, the head of the air crash investigation committee. He did not elaborate.
Ukraine International Airlines President Yevhen Dykhne, said the aircraft “was one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew.” In a statement, the airline went further, saying: “Given the crew’s experience, error probability is minimal. We do not even consider such a chance.”
Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency as denying the plane has been brought down by a missile.
“The rumors about the plane are completely false and no military or political expert has confirmed it,” he said. He said the rumors were “psychological warfare” by the government’s opponents.
Authorities said they found the plane’s so-called black boxes, which record cockpit conversations and instrument data. But it was not immediately clear how much access to the information the Iranians would allow.
Aviation experts were skeptical about Iran’s initial claim that the plane was brought down by a mechanical problem.
“I don’t see how they would have known that so quickly,” said John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at MIT. “They hadn’t had time to look at the flight data recorder. They probably hadn’t had time to investigate the physical wreckage of the engines. How do you know it was a mechanical issue versus a surface-to-air missile that went in the engine?”
Many planes have systems that send huge amounts of technical data, including potential problems with the engines or other key systems, to the airline and the manufacturer. But it was unclear whether Ukraine International had paid to download that information automatically during flights, or how much data from such a short flight would tell.
A Boeing spokesman declined to say whether the company obtained any information about the jet during its ill-fated flight.
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Yes, the Iranian government should be held accountable. Not so much for destroying a commercial aircraft and killing 180 people. The Iranian government should be blamed for treating its retaliatory military operations as only a political statement. Warfare requires more than just firing missiles to satisfy political expediency.
It could be that somebody in Iran made an awful mistake.
Yes, that's quite possible. The important thing to keep in mind is that it obviously wasn't intentional.
The question that won't be asked is why the Iranian government allowed commercial flights to continue or resume so soon?
From the interviews i've seen with "experts", they're leaning towards a possible errant rocket, possibly an anti aircraft ordinance.
Agreed, flights shouldn't have resumed so soon
From the seed, it's indicated that Iran is not likely to release information from the black boxes, which might well contain the answer to the puzzle. It should be opened only by an International flight investigating organization. Personally I wouldn't trust the Iranian government with it, or anyone who could use takiyyah to protect themselves from responsibility.
As for wannabe Muslim Justin Trudeau, any suggestion that Iran was responsible would be considered Islamophobia and deserving to be punished as a hate crime.
It's amazing that they don't realize how guilty that makes them look. Examining black boxes is routine in every place crash investigation. There's no legitimate reason to hide them.
Yes, it does make them look guilty, but is that any different than their requirement that they "self-inspect" their military nuclear development sites. What bothers me is how many fools believe them.
Well it is President Trumps fault, if he wouldn't have called for the "assassination" of Soleimani it wouldn't have happened. /s
What bothers me, is how so many believe Trump.
This was called a conspiracy theory the other day......
not by me
And this:
Iran says it 'unintentionally' shot down Ukrainian jetliner