New images that further clarify the conditions under which Ukraine International Airlines' Boeing 737 crashed in Iran. The daily The New York Times revealed Wednesday, January 15, in a new video, that the aircraft was shot down by two missiles fired from a military base near Tehran.
Taken from a video surveillance camera and filmed by a mobile phone, these images show the trajectory of a bright object at night, then an explosion in the sky after almost twenty seconds. A second luminous object is launched ten seconds later from the same place, in the same direction, and explodes ten seconds later. A minute later, a fireball briefly appears at the top of the screen.
The American newspaper frames in its video what it presents as the two missiles and the Boeing, which crashed shortly after takeoff on January 8, causing 176 deaths.
The New York daily, which specifies that these images were "Verified" – note that in the upper right corner of the video appears the date of October 17, 2019, one of the calendars in force in Iran is offset from that in force in France –, explains that they reveal "Why the device's transponder stopped working", and that the aircraft successfully changed course to return to the airport before crashing.
They were taken, according to the newspaper, by a camera installed on the roof of a building near the village of Bid Kaneh, 6 km from an Iranian military base. The village is located some 30 km northwest of Tehran International Airport.
"Human error"
The air disaster occurred at the height of tensions between Tehran and Washington after the death of General Ghassem Soleimani, killed by an American drone fire in Baghdad, Iraq. In retaliation, Iran launched two missiles on January 8 against two military bases used by the US military in Iraq, with no casualties. A few hours later, the Ukrainian plane was shot down " by mistake " while Iranian air defense was on high alert "War".
The announcement of the crash sparked popular anger at the Iranian regime, accused of having denied responsibility before admitting a " human error ". "People want to make sure the authorities treat them with sincerity, integrity and trust", President Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday, asking " armed forces " of " to apologise " and D'"Explain to the people what happened" so that people understand "That they didn't want to hide anything". In a speech, he called for"National unity" and to a radical change in the mode of government of his country.
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