Reports have surfaced Iran had intended to fire a missile at Iraq but hit the passenger plane that was travelling from Tehran to Kiev by accident. The aircraft took off from Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. The plane crashed shortly after take-off.
An investigation has been launched into the incident.
It is said to have taken a dramatic shift today after the probe suggested Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was shot down ”in error”.
Security expert Professor Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University, told the Evening Standard: “It’s likely to be a Russian-made missile and that it was the Iranians who downed the plane in error.
“My feeling is that this was an accident because the Iranians were so nervous of a US attack.”
The attack that came days after US strikes killed Qassem Soleimani, Tehran’s top-ranking military general.
President Donald Trump claimed the slain general had been plotting attacks on the US due to take place in a matter of days.
Six days after President Trump launched airstrikes on a Baghdad airport where the general was killed, the Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down, killing 177 people on board.
Civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said: “The plane crashed five minutes after taking off.
The pilot had no contact with the tower and didn’t announce an emergency situation before the crash.”
He added: “After taking off from Imam Khomeini international airport, it crashed between Parand and Shahriar.”
Pir Hossein Kulivand, an Iranian emergency official, told state TV this morning that 176 people had been killed in the crash.
Three UK citizens were on board Ukraine International Flight 752, as were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghanis and three Germans.