Iran plane crash

[#1]

"A Ukrainian Boeing-737 carrying 176 people has crashed in Iran and officials say there is no chance of finding survivors"

Another Boeing disaster... or struck by a missile fired towards those American bases in Iraq?

To much of a coincidence I'm thinking. And how come they are so quick to blame it on a "technical failure".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-51029994

[#2]

"Ukraine has refused to rule out that the plane that crashed in Iran and killed all 176 on board was struck by a missile. "

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/08/iran-plane-crash-170-passengers-feared-dead-ukraine-boei...

[#3]

Itchy trigger fingers on Russian supplied surface to air misslies ?

'The plane crash came only hours after missile attack on US bases in Iraq'...

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/01/08/ukrainian-plane-crash-iran-no-survivors-black-bo...

Trump has promised to reply to any attack by Iran 'with disproprtionate force'  ( military speak for if you throw

stones at us we will nuke you'....) - Iran has been conducting proxy wars and mischief in middle east for years, USA only

waiting for an excuse.

[#4]

https://noqreport.com/2020/01/08/iran-shot-down-ukrainian-plane/

The sudden disappearance of plane from radar ( it can easily fly on one engine ) and shrapnel

damage on the aircraft all point to a missile strike,  the missiles normally explode in proximity to the target

and pepper it with deadly shrapnel - the size and shape of the shrapnel will indicate who made the missile..

[#5]

interesting to see the flight path on this link

https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1214755618508230657

and also a 34 second video of the plane as it takes off and eventually crashes...( unfortuntely, it was dark at the time, so you only see a "light" moving across behind the trees... then the camera operator finds a better location and captures the actual crash explosion..

Looks like it was on fire soon after take off ... and that is probably the reason the camera op filmed it....

[#6]

Hope you are right @shutter as I'd hate to see the Ukranians get involved in the middle east conflict what with their Russian built Buk missile system and all.

This could all get rather nasty for as Trump has been shown to have said, "happy nuke year".

[#7]

There is a photo of the wreckage showing what appear to be impacts from missile fragments:

It will be interesting to see what the flight data and voice recorders show when if ever the info is released.

[#8]

@TeeGee 

And there's the rub, because Iran will be controlling the 'investigation'.

More to come... or not.

[#9]

Seems it was maintained on Monday. And of course, we all remember what was said at the time of the Boeing 737Max crash - 25 Oct 2019 - Lion Air crash report 'criticises design, maintenance and pilot error. Concorde went down in much the same way i.e. fire after take off.

The fact the wing, parts of the fuselage is intact, instead of being in fragments, tends to suggest it was still 'flying' as it went down. Anything could have caused the disaster.  One reason I tend to wait for the official verdicts.

[#10]

@idonno 

Given the political situation in Iran, many will be waiting for the official whitewash.

[#11]

I'm surprised the NTSB isn't involved

Looks like their site is down.

[#12]

Interesting comment on the pilots rumour network (pprune.org)

Catastrophic mechanical failures leading to this type of inflight break-up simply do not happen in modern transport aircraft. The odds of this happening at anytime, anywhere in the world are minimal. The odds of this happening at a time and place coincident with the conflict are infinitesimal.

[#13]

According to a report in the Guardian "Tehran says it will not give black box to Boeing".

[#14]

I must say I was surprised to hear on the news this morning that the Iranians had declared it an engine failure without having retrieved the black boxes, or much else, at that point.

Air travel is only as safe as it is because the industry is constantly learning from accidents.  Should it not be enshrined in international law that the black box data be released to the manufacturers?  Or Boeing, Airbus etc. could just make it part of the contract of sale.  Pilot error is the industry's favourite initial assumption after an accident; they needn't worry about the pilot suing for defamation since he/she is deceased, and no modifications to the aircraft are required.  Mechanical failure is the second favourite assumption since it doesn't reflect badly on the airline or its country of origin, unless there is documentary evidence that the aircraft has been poorly maintained.

[#15]

Of course it could be true the plane was on fire on take off and was trying to return to the airport.

But..........a flickering fire in the sky. An object in the sky going where is was not supposed to go. Just the thing to attract the attention of someone with an itchy finger.