U.S. officials are now saying Iran shot down a Ukrainian jetliner around the same time as its missile attack on American installations in Iraq. Every single passenger was killed.
U.S. intelligence picked up signals of a radar being turned on shortly before the plane went down, according to CBS News. And U.S. satellites detected two surface-to-air missiles being fired right before the plane exploded.
The jet, bound for Kyiv, had 176 passengers on board. At least 63 of them were Canadian citizens. Several independent aviation experts said that, based on video and debris evidence, the Boeing 737 800 likely broke apart in the air, and the preliminary Iranian investigation cited witness accounts that describe the plane burning as it fell from the sky.
Iran’s involvement had not been confirmed until today, but the regime’s role in the fatal crash was suspected from the get-go. It’s unclear whether Iran mistakenly shot the plane down while it fired missiles into Iraq or whether the attack was intentional. What we do know is that at least two other planes originally routed through Iranian airspace during the missile strike had been told to turn around or were redirected.
We also know that the Iranians tried to cover their tracks. Shortly after the black box flight recorders were found at the crash site, the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization announced the regime would “not give the black boxes to the manufacturer and the Americans” and instead insisted that Iran would conduct the investigation itself.
The question now is: What next? How will Ukraine, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other affected countries respond? The answers depend on whether the attack was intentional or not. There will have to be a thorough investigation, and the Iranian government must comply. If it does not, there will be consequences.
