Reuters: Prigozhin plane hit by missle

[brooklynite]

RTRS: EXCLUSIVE-U.S. BELIEVES SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE ORIGINATING INSIDE RUSSIA LIKELY SHOT DOWN PLANE PRESUMED TO BE CARRYING PRIGOZHIN, U.S. OFFICIALS TELL REUTERS

Link to tweet

[Walleye]

1. That makes more sense than anything so far

Putin will never miss a chance to murder

[Model35mech]

23. the video showed it falling pretty much straight down...

Unusual unless there was an explosion of some sort.

Hit by surface to air missile certainly fills that bill.

[Walleye]

25. Putin wasn't troubled by killing the other 9 souls on that plane

[MarineCombatEngineer]

27. Those other 9 souls

were reportedly the top leadership of the Wagner Group, the only innocent souls on that aircraft were the flight crew.

[Walleye]

30. Good. Putin is all about death and destruction

[MarineCombatEngineer]

31. True dat. nt

[Picaro]

2. As I said previously in response to another story

This wasn’t a plane crash. This story finally gets it right.

[captain queeg]

3. I'm shocked. Shocked I say.

[Ray Bruns]

7. Well, not that shocked.

https://m.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

4. 🍿

[MarineCombatEngineer]

5. No doubt in my mind,

the fact that the wing was separated from the fuselage tells me that it was a missile, not a bomb, which would have been placed in the fuselage.

It was probably a heat seeking SAM.

[Disaffected]

19. I'm not following that.

A bomb inside the fuselage close to a wing root could blow the wing off could it not?

How do we know a wing was blown off - could that be seen from the video?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

20. Witnesses have stated that the aircraft came down minus one of the wings,

very doubtful it was a bomb, a heat seeking missile will go for the heat signature of the engines.

[Disaffected]

22. OK - wing missing.

This however was a small passenger jet and do they not usually (always?) have the two engines attached to the body around the tail area rather than the wings?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

24. The engines are close enough to the wings and the missile can detonate as soon as it detects it's

heat signature.

It could have been a bomb, but that's for the experts to determine, my opinion is that it was a heat seeking missile that took down the aircraft.

[Disaffected]

34. The Pentagon sez

there is no evidence of a missile so I'm still not following why you think it was.

And why a heat seeking missile? Where's the evidence for that? One would also think, if it was a missile, there would be eye-witness reports by now.

Anyhow, it seems to me that a bomb on board would provide more plausible deniability than a missile strike. I suppose even a fuel tank explosion could have caused it (it has happened before).

[MarineCombatEngineer]

35. We'll know soon enough,

western intelligence services are pretty good at figuring out what happened.

[mobeau69]

6. Anyway he could plausibly try to blame Ukraine?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

11. He may very well try, but the missile was launched well within Russian terrority

and Ukraine doesn't have any SAM systems with that kind of reach.

[rubbersole]

8. Probably why pootie travels by armored train.

[Jerry2144]

9. Traitor destroys brave Russian missile with his plane

Headline we will likely see on Russian newspapers

[John1956PA]

12. The other report is that departure was delayed because of a "strange repair."

Granted. That story may not be true. The basis for that report was that, supposedly, a flight attendant texted a family member to advise that the jet's takeoff was being delayed because a "strange repair" was being performed. Of course, both stories could be true. The "strange repair" could have been the installation of a tracking device which allowed the missile to home in on the jet.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

13. Modern SAM systems don't need a tracking device on the target,

they're either heat seeking or proximity fused warheads.

[harumph]

15. The "repair" might have been a backup plan.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. I said that yesterday and quoted from the UK Telegraph.

[Wingus Dingus]

16. They sacrificed the pilots and everyone else on board to get him. Can you imagine how

the families of those people feel?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

18. Those 10 passengers were all affiliated with the Wagner Group,

the pilot, co-pilot and the flight attendant were not, they were, by all accounts, innocent victims of Putin's tyranny, sacrificed with no thought of mercy.

[miyazaki]

21. The surviving familes of KAL-007 and MH17 know how it feels.

Just add it to their sordid history of taking down commercial airlines.

[NowISeetheLight]

17. Video

The way the thing just dropped from the sky on video.. my money is on a missle.

[andym]

26. The actual Reuters article states the US is less certain about what brought down the plane

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-believes-missile-inside-russia-likely-shot-down-prigozhins-presumed-plane-us-2023-08-24/
US officials see missile strike, other theories, behind crash of Prigozhin plane
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
August 24, 2023 9:45 AM PDT

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The United States is looking at a number of theories over what brought down the plane presumed to be carrying mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, including a surface-to-air missile hitting it, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday.,,
--snip--
Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that it was likely a surface-to-air missile originating from inside Russia likely shot down the plane. The officials stressed that the information was still preliminary and under review, and did not rule out a change to the assessment.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported a different theory: that a bomb aboard the aircraft or some other sabotage caused the crash.

It is not uncommon for there to be competing, even contradictory, intelligence views in the U.S. government in the hours and days after major international events. A third U.S. official told Reuters that there were a number of theories and no definitive conclusion had been reached.

[former9thward]

28. Our intelligence says there was no sign of a missile.

U.S. intelligence officials are considering the possibility that the plane believed to be carrying Wagner Group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin crashed after an explosion aboard, according to U.S. officials familiar with the preliminary assessment. There is no indication thus far the jet was downed by a missile, according to three officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a preliminary assessment. An explosion was detected along the path of the plane, but there are no signs of a missile launch, two officials said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/24/prigozhin-plane-crash-wagner-russia-live-updates/

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. Pentagon: Reuters is full of it - "We assess that information to be inaccurate"

[The Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen Pat] Ryder said the Pentagon had no indication that the plane carrying Prigozhin was brought down by a surface-to-air missile. “We assess that information to be inaccurate,” Ryder said of press reports that the Embraer plane was hit by surface-to-air missiles.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/aug/24/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-wagner-yevgeny-prigozhin-plane-crash-moscow-putin?page=with:block-64e7a59a8f08a1ac554627b3#block-64e7a59a8f08a1ac554627b3

[LetMyPeopleVote]

32. Who is surprised by this?

[Solomon]

33. I'm sure Putin wants the a DNA evidence to make sure the guy didn't fake his own death.

[ecstatic]

36. Weird story, weird ending

Prigozhin's coup / insurrection was weird. The abrupt ending of the coup was weird. And now this story, equally weird. How delusional would Prigozhin have to be to think that he was safe getting in a plane, from Moscow of all places, after everything that happened? For me it's actually more believable to think that Putin and Prigozhin made an agreement to fake his death, but who knows? And with this post, I'm officially done with this story.