A Leaked Audio Recording Shows Iran Knew Immediately It Had Shot Down A Ukrainian Plane

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/iran-ukraine-plane-flight-ps752


Rescue teams work in the aftermath of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashing near Tehran.

The head of the Iranian investigation team said Iran would no longer share information with Ukraine after the leak of the recording, which was also confirmed as genuine by Ukraine’s president.

Christopher Miller
BuzzFeed Contributor

Posted on February 3, 2020, at 9:09 a.m. ET

KYIV — A leaked audio recording of a conversation between an Iranian air traffic controller and an Iranian pilot suggest authorities in Tehran knew immediately that a Ukrainian passenger jet had been shot down, killing all 176 people on board.

The recording, broadcast by a Ukrainian TV channel Sunday night, has been acknowledged as genuine by Ukraine’s president, and the head of the Iranian investigation team.

On the recording, the pilot of an inbound passenger plane heading for Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport on the morning of Jan. 8 describes witnessing something resembling a missile being fired, followed by a midair explosion. The pilot says that he can see a burning object flying through the air. The baffled air traffic controller responds by saying nothing like that should be happening and asks if it’s flying toward Tehran, to which the pilot says that it’s flying from the Iranian capital.

The exchange provides another piece of the still-murky puzzle about the tragic downing of the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. It also adds evidence to the argument of Ukrainian and Western officials that Iranian authorities likely knew immediately that two missiles were fired toward the Boeing 737 — if air traffic control was aware of something as hazardous as a missile being fired, it’s likely to have notified government officials straightaway.

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The blame needs to be placed firmly at the feet of whoever failed to order a commercial flight ground stop, knowing that war conditions were in place.

[Blue_Tires]

1. 1. Of course they fucking knew...

2. The "blame" belongs to whoever pushed the goddamned button and whichever officer(s) is in command of anti-air defenses.

3. Several commercial flights took off from the same airport and took the same route in the hours leading up to the incident.

4. There have been multiple incidents in recent years where poor communication and shitty training have resulted in almost-shootdowns.

5. If it's true that some soldier mistook an airliner for a U.S. cruise missile (yeah because cruise missiles love to amble along to their targets at 200-something knots airspeed) then he is literally too stupid to breathe.

[crickets]

2. It's a tragedy that should not have happened.

Thanks for the new info.