Initial reports of the tragic loss of Ukraine Airlines Boeing 737-800 with 176 passengers soon after takeoff from Tehran indicated some sort of failure. However, new theories are emerging that suggest it could have been a missile strike. This is the view of Canada and the UK. The speculation by the US media appears to be no different. Their logic is Iran might have mistaken the civil aircraft as an American warplane. Because Iran had carried out a missile strike on US bases in Iraq they could have presumed the Ukraine aircraft was a retaliatory action by the Americans.

Hence, it was shot it down due to an error of judgment.

The BBC says Iran's civil aviation chief insists a missile did not hit the plane. The timing of the crash was after the missile strike by Iran on two US airbases in Iraq. Victims included people from different countries. There were 63 Canadians and that could have prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to mention a possible missile strike. He talked about receiving intelligence from multiple sources on the subject and added it could have been unintentional.

Black box recovered, joint investigation on the cards

One media report says a satellite is believed to have detected infrared "blips" of missile launches. There were two of them followed by another blip of an explosion. Another media report quotes official US outlets as saying the Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 went down after a Russian-made Tor missile hit the aircraft.

US President Donald Trump also harbored doubts about what actually happened. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Western countries to share their information about the crash. US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will be a part of the investigation.

The BBC goes on to add that there were many Canadians on the flight and they were to fly on to Toronto from Kyiv.

Justin Trudeau said, "This reinforces the need for a thorough investigation. Canadians have questions and they deserve answers." An official of Ukraine clarified that a “Tor missile strike was one of four possible causes being considered.”

Doubts on whether it was a mechanical issue

According to Euronews, the Ukraine Airlines flight crashed after Iran launched a missile attack against US bases in Iraq because of the US drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani. President Donald Trump dropped hints that it could have been an issue other than mechanical. An investigation will be conducted with Boeing and the preliminary Iranian report confirmed that both “black boxes” were recovered but they have sustained damage and some parts of their memory were lost.

Oleksiy Danilov, an official of Ukraine's Security Council, indicated a missile strike was just one of the theories. In 2014, a missile attack brought down a Malaysian Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people aboard.
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