On Thursday, Pentagon officials confirmed high confidence that the Ukrainian airline was shot down by an Iranian air-defense missile, killing 176 people; The plane was shot down shortly after Iran fired two waves of missiles at US bases in Iraq; Evidence of shrapnel was found on the wings of the plane.
On Thursday, Pentagon officials confirmed that Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 was shot down by an air-defense missile belonging to Iran. The incident was likely by mistake, as Iranian missile defense systems were on high alert after Iran fired 15 ballistic missiles at US bases inside of Iraq. Suspicion surfaced when Iran refused to turn over the plane’s black boxes to Boeing for further investigation. Not only did they refuse to turn them over, but later, Iran claimed that they had been damaged in the crash and memory-data may be missing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned people of not jumping to conclusions when the crash initially took place. That being said, one report references a US intelligence source that explained how a satellite system was able to detect two missile launches via infrared, followed by at least one explosion. President Trump stated on Thursday, “I have my suspicions…somebody could have made a mistake.”
Iran’s head of Civil Aviation Authority denied the evidence and stated that “it is impossible that a missile hit the Ukrainian plane.” Logically, his claim is met with severe criticism because Iran has been doing everything possible to cover up the evidence since the crash took place. Additionally, shrapnel could be found on the wings of the plane.
