generalspeaking

Mystery Unravelled, Back to Basics

"If you talk to experts, this cannot be right. Totally it is wrong, 100 percent. This is something purely technical. It was a disaster, it was a great tragedy ... "
"What is going around is because of some political issues, the tension between Iran and the U.S."
"If the aircraft had been hit with a missile, it would explode in the air. It would not hit the ground, you know."
"So many pilots and engineers were interviewed in Iran. Retired pilots, experts with 30, 35 years of experience, and engineers, and all of them say that this cannot technically happen."
"It was a disaster for the Iranian people as well, and the Iranian community in Canada."
Farhad Parvaresh, Iranian ambassador for international air travel, International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal

Witness accounts, stressed Mr. Parvaresh -- speaking for his government -- and amateur video suggest that Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 that hurtled to the ground close to Tehran on Wednesday morning engulfed in flames, indicated the rapid descent trailing flames, striking the ground in an immense fireball discounted the possibility that an anti-aircraft missile was involved. At the same time, he noted, other passenger jets were leaving and arriving at Tehran's Imam Khomeni airport every ten minutes.

Aside from which the majority of the crash victims were citizens of Iran, so why would, how could Iran be accused of deliberately targeting a civilian passenger plane carrying mostly Iranians, with its missiles? To consider such a scenario was "totally wrong". Reason would have it, addressing such a tragedy with almost any other nation, that this is an unassailable argument.

Vigil, Amirkabir University, Tehran, Saturday. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

But this is Iran, a country which, like Syria, hardly hesitates to respond to mass street protests with live fire. By that measure, it having been revealed that 1,500 Iranians lost their lives a bare month ago by protesting the regime's virulent agenda, it isn't too far a stretch to imagine it might also sacrifice the lives of an additional 80 Iranians in a plane disaster.

And then, of course, there's the fact that Iran has invited investigating officials from Ukraine and Canada to take part in Iran's own crash investigation. Setting aside reports that the crash site has been prepared for such an investigation with the presence of bulldozers cleaning up a bit of the mess, despite that in such instances, considered a crime scene, everything must be left untouched for investigators to thoroughly examine all possible evidence toward a conclusion.

Iranians shout anti-government slogans outside Amirkabir University on Saturday after a vigil held for the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/via Getty Images

"Time will tell and the world is watching. Over the course of the next days we will see if they are genuine in their interest to have a full and transparent investigation", noted Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, on Friday. The minister also noted that Tehran appeared to be in no great hurry to issue visas to enable the Canadian investigators to enter the country, despite the proffered invitation inviting them to do so. There is reason to begin as soon as possible, given reports from CBS News from the crash scene stating much of the wreckage had been cleared away.

When it was revealed a day ago, first by U.S.President Donald Trump, then Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, followed by Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau, that all indications are, through confirmation by intelligence and technology that the plane was shot down, an added comment was that it most likely was an inadvertent occurrence, an "accident". And that faintly exculpable dimension verging on the 'innocent of deliberation, in the fog of war' comment must have heartened Tehran.

"We do believe it is likely that that plane was shot down by an Iranian missile."
"When we get the results of that investigation, I am confident that we and the world will take appropriate action in response."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

"We recommend the U.S. government to attend to the results of the investigations by the probe committee instead of scattering lies and engineering psychological warfare."
Iranian government statement 

"What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane."
"[If the U.S. and Canada are certain, they should] show their findings to the world."
Ali Abedzadeh, head, National Aviation Department, Iran

"The Iranians may have had a desire that nothing be revealed. [They] acted there [at the crash site] very, very quickly so that everything was hidden."

"What they did and how it all looked when we [Ukrainian investigators] saw it was just awful."

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council  

And so, the Islamic Republic of Iran, counting its curses and its blessings, acknowledged the former and practised the latter by grasping the lifeline of a pale excuse of 'accident' that casual supposition had granted. Grasping that a mea culpa leaning heavily on confusion and chaos given the aggressive actions of the United States leaving Iran will so few options of retaliation and nervous about reprisals over their weak retaliation in the missiles that flew to two U.S. military bases in Syria and Iraq, the regime bit the bullet.

"Hassan Rouhani expressed his condolences to the Ukrainian people and the families of those killed as a result of the crash of the PS752 flight of Ukraine International Airlines. He issued an apology from the Iranian side for the tragedy that claimed 176 lives."
"The head of the Islamic Republic of Iran fully acknowledges that the tragedy was due to the erroneous actions of the military of this state. Official Tehran assured that all involved in the crash will be held accountable. Acknowledging plane shot down is a step in the right direction. I insist on immediately completing identification of the bodies and their return to Ukraine."
"The perpetrators must be held accountable. We look forward to further legal and technical cooperation."
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

A scapegoat will be named, a functionary who followed orders, who will now be in the crosshairs of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, an expendable sacrifice. World opinion and the demand of accountability coursing toward Tehran from the outraged leaders of civilized nations is one thing. The reaction of Iranians to this act of domestic/international carnage that has victimized Iranians yet again is too much to bear for many who have once again placed themselves in deadly danger, protesting in the streets, demanding the end of the regime.

And the regime is responding as best it knows how. With water cannons. With tear gas canisters. And with live rounds.

Labels: Admission, Canada, Conflict, Iran, Iranian Victims, Missiles, Ukraine Airlines, United States

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, January 11, 2020

Monitoring the Situation

"We continue to monitor the situation and will not engage in speculation."
"We are confident in the safety of our fleet [of about 400 Boing 737 daily departures of its 48 737-800 aircraft]."
Morgan Bell, WestJet spokesperson

"Even a catastrophic engine failure would be highly unlikely to have such a dramatic effect on control of the aircraft."
"A 737 is capable of flying safely on just one of its two engines."
David Learmount, consulting editor, FlightGlobal

"[The crash] that killed numerous Iranians, including a group of students, as well as other nationalities, deeply saddens all Iranians."
"May they rest in peace."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

"Canadians have questions and they deserve answers."
"I want to express my deepest condolences to those who are mourning the loss of a loved one. Your loss is indescribable and this is a heartbreaking tragedy."
"While no words will erase your pain, I want you to know that an entire country is with you."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Flight PS752 departed Imam Khomeini International Airport at 6:20 a.m. Wednesday, close to an hour later than scheduled. And then it disappeared from radar a mere few minutes following takeoff. It reached 8,000 ft. in altitude according to data from FlightRadar24, the flight-tracking website. And the unspeakable tragedy of a plane engulfed in fire, plummeting to the ground, crashing and the stunning conclusion of 176 passengers and crew immolated and shattered.

According to Iranian authorities, the most likely cause of this ghastly scenario was an engine that caught fire. The response by Ukraine Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk was for Ukrainian prosecutors to open a criminal probe. He refused to rule out the possibility that the plane might have been hit by a missile, but cautioning against early speculation. A team of aviation experts was dispatched to Iran to begin the crash investigation, revealed Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The Ukrainian Airlines Boeing 737-800 passenger jet just happened to crash the very night Iran sent off a dozens missiles to hit bases in Iraq housing American troops to retaliate for the U.S.drone strike that destroyed Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. There was a crew of nine and a total of 176 people aboard the passenger liner. All died within minutes of takeoff from Tehran International Airport. An Canadian Iranian who just saw his wife off on her return to Canada discovered while still in the terminal that he would never see her again.

Most of the Boeing 737-800 flight passengers were  headed for Canada, including Canadian citizens and Iranians returning to Canada on study and other visas. The victims were not all Canadians and Iranians, however, seven other countries are now mourning the untimely deaths of their nationals; 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, three British nationals. But fully 138 of those passengers were headed for Canada.

Hours later, a Ukrainian airlines plane landed at Pearson airport in Toronto from Kyiv, representing the scheduled second tranche of the journey undertaken by those who boarded the passenger jet in Tehran to fly to Kyiv. The passengers booked to connect to the second leg of their journey from Kyiv to Toronto, would never again meet any schedules, their ghostly non-presence making for a large vacancy rate on that plane. Canadian citizens of Iranian descent, visitors, landed immigrants, students, all perished.

A video widely circulating online shows Flight PS752 ascending, then bursting into a ball of flame and hurtling groundward in the dark sky. When the plane hit the ground, countless little fires broke off to burn brightly across a wide area. Hours later when daylight struck, debris strewn across the scorched area was still smouldering on a soccer field, a drainage ditch and road. Rescue workers in masks hopelessly searched for survivors, ending up placing human remains in green, black and tan body bags.

Three and a half hours after Iran had launched 22 missiles at military bases in Iraq, the Ukrainian airliner mysteriously 'caught fire' and crashed, and 176 innocent people lost their lives. "Our priority is to establish the truth and those responsible for this terrible catastrophe", said Ukraine's President Zelenskiy. No mayday transmission from the pilots, just a plane completely engulfed in fire, and then the crash.

Interpreting the signals in the two black boxes will quickly establish cause. Ali Abedzadeh, head of the Iran Civil Aviation Organization stated the black boxes would remain in Iran's possession, not to be turned over as is regular practise to the U.S. manufacturer of the aircraft for study on the movement of the plane and its instruments and communications where the pilots' actions and conversations would settle the question of what exactly occurred.

"It was one of our best planes with an excellent, trustworthy crew" explained the airline's president, Yevhen Dykhne. Aviation officials from Ukraine and Iran together with Boeing representatives and aviation organizations have promised a thorough investigation. Some aviation experts see a problem in an engine fire that could presumably consume and down an aircraft so rapidly.

Photos of the wreckage shared on the Internet show holes in the plane many suspect were a result of gunfire.

"The rumours about the plane are completely false and no military or political expert has confirmed it", General Abolfazi Shekarchi stated for the Iranian armed forces. "We lost contact with it [the plane], suggesting that something very unusual happened", commented Canada's Marc Garneau a former astronaut, and now Canada's Transport Minister. And lo and behold something very unusual certainly did occur.

There is now general concurrence that Iran 'mistakenly' shot a ground-to-air missile that hit the plane, set it instantly afire, killing all aboard. Echoes of other, previous 'mistakes'.

Labels: Air Tragedy, Canadian-Iranians, Conflict, Iran, Ukraine Airlines, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 10, 2020