On Jan. 8, Iranian forces shot down a Ukrainian airliner shortly after it took off from an airport in Tehran carrying 176 passengers bound for Kyiv. Many of those killed were Iranian nationals living abroad, including over 60 from Canada, who had come to visit family during the winter break.

The tragedy was caused when a trigger-happy Iranian anti-aircraft crew fired a Russian-made missile at what they later claimed to have mistaken for a U.S. cruise missile. This happened a few hours after the Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base housing U.S. troops, which was in retaliation for the targeted killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani.