A passenger plane bound for Kyiv crashed outside Tehran Wednesday. All 176 on board were killed.
Hours after Iran launched an attack against US forces stationed in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Quds Force leader Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a passenger plane carrying 176 people crashed near Tehran. No one aboard the airplane is believed to have survived the crash, which happened Wednesday morning local time.
The plane, a Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kyiv, was a Boeing 737-800 — not a 737 Max, the Boeing plane plagued by technical issues that has been grounded after being involved in two deadly crashes in 2018.
Din Mohammad Qassemi, who lives near the crash site, told the Associated Press he initially believed the US was retaliating for the strike on coalition forces in Iraq: “I heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. There was fire everywhere. At first I thought [the Americans] have hit here with missiles and went in the basement as a shelter. After a while, I went out and saw a plane has crashed over there. Body parts were lying around everywhere.”
There is currently no evidence, however, that the crash is related to any military action. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Yevhen Dykhne, Ukrainian International Airlines president, seemed to suggest he doesn’t believe pilot error to be at fault. He said Wednesday, “It is impossible that there were mistakes by the crew.” He also called the 737, which was bought new in 2016, “one of the best planes we had.”
The story is still developing. Here’s what we know, and what we don’t.
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Author: Sean Collins
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