- Iran admitted responsibility for shooting down a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 after it took off from Tehran, claiming it was an accident.
- History of aircraft shootdowns shows a history of mistaken aircraft identity amid rising geopolitical tension.
- The US accidentally shot down an Iranian commercial airliner in the 1980s, killing 290 passengers.
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Iran says it shot down the Ukrainian airliner in Tehran. The event now joins 5 other shoot-down disasters in recent history.
Getty/Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto
Iranian authorities admitted on Saturday that Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down by one of its missiles , revising former claims of a mechanical issue. The aircraft, en route to Kyiv from Tehran, crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport, with Iran claiming it had strayed too close to a Revolutionary Guard base.
Authorities blamed increasing tensions between the Islamic republic and the US in the days leading up to the shoot down as one of the main reasons for the crash. Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, placed the blame squarely on the US for the accidental discharge, citing "US adventurism."
Tensions between the two countries escalated following the drone assassination of Qassem Soleimani, one of the country's top generals, in Baghdad, Iraq.
It's not the first time that geopolitical tensions contributed to accidental shootdowns, here's a list of other times civilian airliners have been shot down by mistake.
See Also:
- The history of Ukraine International Airlines, the 28-year-old carrier that just had its first deadly crash in the Iran disaster that killed 176 people
- The Boeing 737 that crashed in Iran wasn't a Max plane here are the main differences between the two aircraft
- These will be the 20 safest airlines in 2020, according to experts
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