Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
On Wednesday, Iran decided to shoot missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq. Hours later, a Ukrainian plane crashed out of the sky killing all 176 people on board.
The initial reports were that the plane experienced engine failure, but according to Mary Schiavo, an ex-U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general, “that is the wreckage of an explosion in the air. Something happened to blow that plane out of the air. Statistically speaking, that’s a missile or a bomb.”
U.S. officials are supremely confident that Iran accidentally shot down that Boeing 737-800 jet that was en route to Kyiv, Ukraine from Tehran, Iran.
“U.S. intelligence picked up signals of the radar being turned on & satellite detected infrared blips of 2 missile launches, probably SA-15s, followed shortly by another infrared blip of an explosion,” CBS transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave tweeted. Van Cleave added that the incident could have been a mistake.
The large passenger plane, owned by Ukrainian International Airlines, which went down shortly after 6:20 a.m. local time also included at least 63 Canadians.
President Trump said he too has suspicions about what happened.
“It’s a tragic thing when I see that. It’s a tragic thing. But somebody could’ve made a mistake on the other side,” Trump said, adding it had “nothing to do” with the U.S. “It was flying at a pretty rough neighborhood, and somebody could’ve made a mistake.”
“I have a feeling that it’s just — something very terrible happened,” he added.
