At least 176 people were killed in the suspicious accident involving the Boeing 737-800, operated by Ukraine International Airlines on Wednesday morning.
The incident has sparked an array of reactions from the international community with many suspecting that the passenger plane may have been brought down by a missile.
There is a strong suspicion that Iran may have 'mistakenly' brought down the Ukranian aircraft thinking it was an American carrier.
Here are few conspiracy theories that suggest a missile may have brought down the Ukrainian passenger aircraft:
1. Ukraine International Flight 752 took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran at 6:12 a.m. on Wednesday and within eight minutes crashed into the ground before bursting into flames. It is rather a strange coincidence that hours earlier, Iran fired a dozen rockets at two Iraqi military bases that were housing American troops.
According to Al Jazeera, the missiles were fired at the Ain al-Asad base in Anbar province and a base in Erbil escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran since the assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq last week by the US. Iran had pledged severe retaliation.
2. According to the Institute for Global Threats and Democracies Studies, which has analyzed the images of crashed Boeing aircraft, the passenger plane was most likely shot down using MANPADS in the airport area. The IGTDS based its conclusion after studying the damage on aircraft's wings and engine.
3. The Boeing 737-800 was still on the climbing trajectory before it burst into flames. As per the data released by Flightradar 24, which tracks aircraft movement via radio signals, the plane was cruising at a speed of 300 miles per hour and had reached an altitude of almost 8,000 feet before it came down. This raises doubts about the engine failure theory.
4. Aviation experts claim that aircraft, especially such as Boeing have good safety records. The Ukrainian plane, in fact, was built in 2016 and it is reported had undergone maintenance on January 6. "Planes just don't blow up in mid-air," Richard Aboulafia, vice president for analysis at Teal Group, an aviation consulting firm told NYT.
5. What has made the situation even more suspicious is the refusal of Iran to handover the black-box. Iran has said that it will not give the black-box to Boeing, as it is an American company. Following an aircraft crash, the black boxes are crucial in helping investigators piece together the final moments to ascertain the cause of the crash.
If Iran has nothing to hide, why can't it release the black box, especially considering the families of those killed in the crash?
There is also speculation that Iran might have been looking for a repeat of the Lockerbie bombing. It is rather a strange coincidence that President Hassan Rouhani referred to the Lockerbie bombing on January 6 when he asked his foes aka America to remember 'the number 290' in a tweet.
In December 1988, Iran it is suspected bombed the PanAm flight in what is thought to be a retaliation for shooting down an Iran Air passenger flight.
With both Iran and the US continuing to be on loggerheads, it is highly unlikely that the world will know the real story behind the plane crash. A video that is claimed to be that of the Ukrainian passenger aircraft shows the plane engulfed in flames, coming down with a loud crash that filled the sky with light.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, revealed that were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians including nine crew members, 10 people from Sweden, four from Afghanistan, three from Britain and three from Germany.
