Iran admits firing 2 missiles at Ukrainian plane
The second preliminary report by Iran's Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the Ukrainian plane crash shows that the plane was hit by two short-range surface-to-air missiles.
Bloomberg news agency quoted the above report as saying that two Tor-M1 missiles were launched towards the Boeing 737-800 aircraft from the north.
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| Authorities work at the scene of the Ukrainian plane crash on January 8. Photo: New York Times |
After being hit by a missile, the plane, which was above a residential area at the time, lost altitude and crashed into an obstacle in the amusement park, plunging to the ground. The plane was then destroyed and caught fire.
The Ukrainian plane took off from Tehran, Iran at 6:12 a.m. local time and lost contact with air traffic controllers at an altitude of 2,400 kilometers. The plane then disappeared from radar screens at 6:15 a.m. and from surveillance radar at 6:18 a.m.
The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder are the most advanced in the world and Iran currently lacks the capacity to decode them. Iran has asked the United States and France for equipment to download information from the plane's black boxes, but has yet to receive a positive response.
