This week on his blog, iHeartRadio Airline Analyst Jay Ratliff asked the question: Did a missile bring down the Ukrainian airliner?
He wrote:
Within an hour of the Ukrainian Airlines plane crash, government officials released a statement that a mechanical problem with the aircraft was likely to blame for the crash that killed 176 people. Normally it takes far longer to determine an initial cause of a plane crash, making this highly unusual.
When the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder (known as the black boxes) were located, the initial report was they were severely damaged and might not be able to provide any insight on the cause of the crash. This led many aviation experts, myself included, to become suspicious because, even in the most horrific crashes, some information can normally be gleaned from damaged black boxes.
Recently a video surfaced (provided, using the link below) showing a missile hitting an airborne object, causing an explosion and U.S. and Canadian officials are stating they believe it was an accidental missile strike that caused the airliner to crash. All the while, Iranian officials call such speculation a "big lie."
The latest news is officials from Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board will be invited to assist with the investigation and, if so, that would be a good sign. We owe it to the lives of those lost to discover the truth behind the crash of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft.