President Donald Trump has said he has serious doubts the Ukrainian plane crash in Iran was caused by mechanical failure and he believes 'somebody made a mistake' after Pentagon officials said the jet was shot down.
US intelligence officials believe the Ukrainian Airlines flight which crashed in Tehran killing 176 people on Wednesday was blasted out of the sky by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile system.
Officials are 'confident' that Iran shot down the Boeing 737-800 jet after detecting a radar system being turned on before two missiles were launched, shortly before an explosion believed to have come from the jet.
Two Pentagon officials added that the missiles were likely launched in error by Iranian anti-aircraft crews awaiting a US response to Iran's rocket strikes against American bases in Iraq hours earlier, according to Newsweek.
Trump said Thursday that he has his suspicions about the attack, telling reporters at the White House: 'It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood. Somebody could have made a mistake. I have a feeling that something very terrible happened, very devastating.'
The plane, a Boeing 737-800 en route from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport to Kyiv's Boryspil International Airport, encountered a problem moments after takeoff in the early hours of Wednesday.
Video showed the aircraft in flames in the air before coming down and exploding a short distance from the city.
If true, the incident would be hugely embarrassing for Iran which had sought to avoid killing anybody in Wednesday's strikes. Eighty-two of the plane's passengers were Iranians.
It could also spark fresh tensions in the Middle East just a day after Trump said Iran seemed to be 'standing down'., as the plane was also carrying 63 Canadians, three Britons, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans and three Germans. Source : Dailymail Uk
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he has serious doubts that the Ukrainian plane crash in Iran was caused by mechanical failure after Pentagon officials claimed that the jet was shot down
