I am inclined to believe Iran shot down the plane thinking it was a US Bomber.

[boston bean]

Stupid mistake. One with multitudes of tragedy. Poor innocents.

But trumpass and his cohorts ( pompeoass especially) have lied so much, it leaves me with an inkling of doubt.

[lark]

1. Hannity said we were bombing them minutes before this happened.

Were they monitoring him so thought this was an American plan and shot first? It's what drumpf would have done.

[dubyadiprecession]

2. Why?

Why would the Iranians want to blow up a plane with Iranians on it and no Americans??

[still_one]

8. It was an accident. I suspect their defense system mis-identified it. Not unlike when we shot down

an Iranian passenger plane in the 80s

A terrible mistake

With the black box and other evidence we will no sooner than later what happened

[MineralMan]

3. Well, someone in Iran did that anyhow.

Someone who had a button to push pushed that button. I doubt it was Iran's idea to shoot down that plane. More like a dumbass error by some junior officer.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Iran's airspace should have been closed.

There's no good reason why that flight was permitted to take off... into a war zone.

[still_one]

9. Exactly

[Bummfuzzle]

5. Trump totally backed off of this and called it a mistake, a terrible mistake.

There has to be something there for Trump not to go all hog wild on Iran for doing this. I thought it odd.

[lame54]

6. Iran needs to own that...

And quit denying the obvious

[Brother Buzz]

7. I am inclined to believe Iran shot down the plane because it's ID transponder code wasn't....

properly linked to the slick Russian radar system.

[atreides1]

10. I have a question

It's been reported that other planes were flying through Iranian airspace...and this was the only plane shot down, why?

[EX500rider]

13. I assume only one idiot made one mistake? nt

[boston bean]

14. Low enough to be seen? I saw reports there was another plane above it that saw it happen.

[EX500rider]

11. Really impossible for the US do have done it, it went down 3 mins after takeoff...

....over 400 miles to any US assets in the region. Way too soon for a missile to track/acquire/hit a plane at that distance.

[boston bean]

12. That is reassuring. Thank you.

[pbmus]

15. Plane loaded with intellectuals, Russian rockets, Iranian ayatollahs, Putin, Assad

10 planes had already taken off from same airport...this plane was targeted.

[BlueMTexpat]

16. I cannot believe that Iran would have deliberately

shot down ANY civilian airplane. Whatever our issues with them, the Iranian government is not insane. If deliberate, THIS was an insane act.

So if indeed Iran shot this plane down, there was either a miscommunication, malfunction or mistaken, if reasonable, belief such as this.

Given Trump's impeachment, it is also interesting that the plane was Ukrainian. Hmmm! I too have an inkling of doubt.

Is everyone sure that the missiles were even Iranian? Some SAMs are portable. There are others in the region who would love to see Iran - indeed the entire ME - embroiled in conflict.

*****
No matter what or how, the person who is most to blame for this tragedy is the Criminally Deranged Thug in the WH!

[EX500rider]

17. A local rebel group (of which Iran has several) might have conceivably...

...used a MANPADS (Man-portable air-defense system) ie shoulder fired missile like a Stinger or SA-24 but not sure why they would target a Ukrainian civilian aircraft unless they messed up which plane they were going after.

[BlueMTexpat]

18. This is indeed one question.

But there may have been "other actors" covertly in the area.

I wonder whether we will ever know.

[Blue_true]

19. My guess also.

If a US Navy frigate can shoot down a passenger plane by mistake during heightened tensions, why should we expect better of Iranian anti-aircraft crews?