Ukraine isn't ruling out missile strikes or terrorism in crash of airliner outside Tehran

Iran sifts through wreckage of Ukrainian airline crash
(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Iranian civil aviation officials said Thursday that preliminary findings from an investigation into Wednesday morning's crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 outside Tehran showed that the plane had started to return to the airport minutes after takeoff but "no radio messages were received from the pilot regarding unusual situations" before the airliner went down, killing all 176 people on board. Iran's military said it had no role in the plane's fiery crash, hours after it fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles toward U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran initially blamed the crash on mechanical issues.

Ukraine, which originally ruled out terrorism or a rocket attack, is now keeping an open mind. Ukrainian crash investigators arrived in Tehran on Thursday.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.