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Iran plane crash – Photo of ‘missile’ near wreckage is posted online – but is it a hoax? – The Sun
PHOTOS claiming to show “rocket debris” near the Iran plane crash site emerged today, fuelling speculation the jet was shot down.
The Kiev-bound Ukraine International Airlines plane came down shortly after taking off from Tehran Airport yesterday, killing all 176 people on board.
The tragedy came just hours after Tehran fired at least 15 ballistic missiles at two US bases in Iraq.
And some fear it could have been shot down by mistake by jittery Iranian air defences – although Western spooks suspect a technical malfunction.
Unverified pictures shared on social media claim to show parts of an anti-aircraft missile allegedly found near the crash site, in the city of Parand.
Ashkan Monfared tweeted the image, which he said was taken “by an amateur who had no knowledge of the significance of the story and did not know what he had found”.
He wrote: “This is a fragment found at the crash site of a Ukrainian passenger plane that fell in front of a resident's home.
“Does the airplane look anything like this? Isn't it rocket?”
He also compared the image to the nose cone of a Russian-made Tor surface-to-air missile.
Others claiming to live nearby said they heard loud noises coming from Parandak army base at around the time of the disaster.
One wrote of Twitter: “I am a resident of Parand and two to three minutes before the plane crashed two very loud noises were heard from Parandak's garrison.”
But others suggested the image was a hoax, with one tweeting: “What is the source of the photo? It has no context. Could have been taken anywhere.”
Ukrainian investigators now want to search for the alleged missile debris, Oleksiy Danylov, the secretary of the national security council, said today.
Ukraine is looking at various possible causes of the crash of an Ukrainian airliner, including a possible missile attack, a collision, an engine explosion or terrorism, he wrote in a Facebook post.
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Iran claims “technical problems” were behind the disaster, but it is refusing to hand over the black box recorders.
It says the pilot did not make a call for radio help and was trying to turn back to the airport when the plane plunged from the sky.
But the aircraft was new in 2016 and was last checked just two days ago, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.
Officials had previously hinted the plane may have suffered engine failure.
Three American sources, along with one European and one Canadian, told Reuters the initial assessment of Western intelligence agencies was that the plane had suffered a technical malfunction.
There was evidence one of the Ukraine International Airlines jet's engines had overheated, the Canadian source said.
BALL OF FLAMES
Horrifying footage posted online shows the plane engulfed in flames as it went down.
Three Britons and 63 Canadians were among the 168 passengers and nine crew who on board the plane.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to “ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated, and that Canadians' questions are answered”.
The plane’s black box flight recorders have been found, with one Iranian official saying they were damaged but their data could still be retrieved.
Engine maker CFM slammed claims the crash was caused by engine failure, saying it was too early to speculate on what was behind the tragedy.
Ukraine's Tehran embassy initially blamed engine failure but later removed the statement, saying it could not officially comment on the cause until after a probe.
It also abruptly removed a line from its statement excluding a terrorist attack or missile strike.
Among the dead were Alvand Sadeghi, 30, a talented pianist who played for guests at his 2018 wedding, to his wife Negar Borghei, who was also killed.
Also killed were newly wed couple Arash Pourzarabi, 26, and Pouneh Gourji, 25, who had travelled to Iran to get married.
They were on the plane with four members of their wedding party and another 24 Iranian-Canadians from Edmonton.
The flight was a popular transit route for Canadians travelling to Iran, in the absence of direct flights, and carried many students and academics heading home from the holidays.
Flags flew at half-mast across Canada, including at Parliament in Ottawa, and vigils were scheduled in several Canadian cities.
Flight data shows the plane reached an altitude of 2.4 km and then suddenly disappeared.
The three-year-old plane stopped sending data almost immediately after it took off, according to website FlightRadar24.
Rescuers rushed to the scene of the crash but could not get near the site because of the intensity of the flames.
Images show flaming wreckage strewn across the ground in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
And other harrowing pictures show victims being lined up in body bags at the scene and their possessions collected in a field nearby.
Some charred remains of the aircraft had fallen in or close to a residential area.
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