A horrible tragedy, but now at least we know the true cause. If Iran had continued to deny it was responsible, we might have wasted much time and significant resources trying to find the reason for the crash.
Iran’s military says it “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, Iran’s state TV reports.
The statement said it had done so due to “human error” after the plane flew close to a sensitive site belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Those responsible would be held accountable, the statement said.
Iran had previously rejected suggestions that one of its missiles brought down the plane near the capital, Tehran, on Wednesday.
But pressure mounted after the US and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believed Iran had shot down the plane with a missile, possibly accidently.
The downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 with the loss of 176 lives came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.
The Ukrainian flight, which was headed to the Canadian city of Toronto via the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, came down near Imam Khomeini Airport shortly after take off.
BTW, Wikipedia maintains a list of civilian airplane crashes that were either definitely the result of the plane being being shot down or it is suspected the plane was shot down. I didn’t realize there were so many of these. Very sad to read about, but important information to track.