A Suspicious Airliner Crash Near Tehran

       Today is a very sad day for our Canadian readers. They are mourning the deaths of 62 of their citizens who died when a Ukrainian airliners crashed after taking off from Tehran's international airport. The total death toll is 176. I have no reports of any Americans dying on the flight.

        The same technology that allowed the US to detect the Iranian missile launches earlier this week, detected an air defense radar lighting up and two Russian SA-15 surface to air missiles launched. These missiles were not fired by the Iranian armed forces. They were fired by a unit of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC). The SA-15 missile battery had high-technology radar. They should have been able to detect the transponder reading from the airliner and its slow climb consistent with an airliner taking off.

         There are three possibilities here as follows:

1) The Iranian government ordered the shoot down of the plane as "payback" for the loss of their general and hero. This is highly unlikely after they fired the ballistic missiles at US bases with the intent not to injure anyone.

2) There was a tragic mistake. In conflict zones these sad mistakes happen too often. On July 3, 1988 Iran flight 655 was flying over international waters. A US Navy guided missile cruiser shot down the flight with surface to air missiles even after detecting its transponder indicating that it was a civilian airline. For those of you interested, here is the full story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 

3) The third possibility is that there was a rogue commander at the antiaircraft missile site who decided to "take matters into his own hands" and get some "payback" for the loss of his beloved general. This possibility is very disturbing.

   Iran keeps denying these allegations and claiming that it was a mechanical failure on board the aircraft. The evidence paints a different picture. Iran will eventually have to pay a big settlement to the families of the victims.

    To all of us who climb into those "pressurized tin cans" to be blasted into the stratosphere, and spend hours in an environment with little oxygen and -65 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, this is a warning. There is no such thing as a routine flight.