Plane shot down in Iran by mistake because it was mistaken for an American carrier

Iranian forces were on high alert for US air activity near the border after Wednesday night's missile attack, which is the main cause of the human error that led to the downing of the Ukrainian airliner with 176 people on board. The Tehran Times describes the events point by point. "Following threats by the president and American military commanders to attack targets on the Islamic Republic's soil if Iran responded, and due to unprecedented movements in the airspace of the region, the Iranian Armed Forces were at the highest level of readiness and alert." Furthermore, “hours after the IRGC’s (Revolutionary Guard Corps, ed.) missile strike operation against the US base, the US terrorist forces’ air flights increased near the Iranian borders and even some reports of air threats against the country’s strategic centers were delivered to the defense units and some targets were seen on radars which caused an increase. The Iranian statement continues explaining that “in such sensitive and critical conditions, Ukraine International Airlines flight No. 752 departs from Imam Khomeini Airport and, while changing direction, completely resembles a hostile target approaching a sensitive IRGC center. Under these circumstances, due to human error and unintentionally, the plane was targeted which unfortunately led to the martyrdom of a host of dear compatriots and the loss of lives of some foreign citizens.” The Iranians then apologized and announced a trial against the perpetrators of the mistake: “Expressing condolences to the families of the victims and expressing its apologies for the human error, the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces assures the nation that it will make the recurrence of such incidents impossible by implementing fundamental changes in the operational processes of the Armed Forces and that it will hand over the perpetrator to the military court so that the mistakes can be legally addressed.” Finally, Iran announced that a detailed and public explanation would soon be given by the Pasdaran officials.