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The A320 diverted safely to Russia’s nearby Khmeimim military air base.

An Airbus A320 airliner carrying 172 passengers was nearly shot down on its approach to the Syrian capital, Damascus, shortly after 2 a.m. on Feb. 6, 2020, after Syria fired anti-aircraft missiles in response to an Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike, according to a Russian Air Force spokesman, RIA Novosti reported Friday.

The plane diverted safely to Russia’snnearby Khmeimim military air base, he said.

Syrian state media said that on Thursday, IAF F-16s launched airstrikes at targets in southern Syria. A claim was confirmed by Russian Air Force spokesman Igor Konashenkov who pointed out that the incident followed airstrikes launched by four Israeli F-16 fighter jets.

IAF fighter jets fired eight missiles at targets near Damascus early Thursday and Syria forces fired anti-aircraft missile defense systems, Konashenkov said. He added the plane that narrowly avoided being hit was traveling from Tehran to Damascus.

The Washington Post reported that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, said airstrikes Thursday hit the positions of Iran-backed militia, killing 23 people, including Syrian and Iranian fighters.

In recent weeks Syrian forces backed by Russian airstrikes and Iran-backed fighters have mounted attacks in the northwest of the country in a bid to crush the last stronghold of opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The incident comes a month after an SA-15 surface-to-air missile (SAM) fired by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a Boeing 737-800 airliner belonging to Ukraine International Airlines killing all 176 people aboard.

The Boeing 737 was hit in the wake of the American MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Revolutionary Guards commander.

Photo by Flightradar / Oleksiy Naumov and Master Sergeant Kevin J. Gruenwald / U.S. Air Force

Revolutionary Guards officials had been ordered to appear on state media and give the public a full explanation.

On Jan. 11, 2020, Iran’s military announced that it had accidentally shot down early morning on Jan. 8 a Boeing 737-800 airliner belonging to Ukraine International Airlines, blaming human error because of what it called the plane’s sharp, unexpected turn toward a sensitive military base.

After days of tension since the jet crashed near Tehran, the same day that Iranian missiles struck American bases in Iraq, the admission was a stunning reversal. As told by Ney York Times in fact, Iran initially maintained that mechanical issues had brought the Boeing down, killing all 176 people aboard.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,” President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter soon after the military released its statement. He offered condolences to the victims’ families and said investigations were underway. The military said the person responsible would face legal consequences.

International pressure had been building on Iran to take responsibility. American and allied intelligence assessments had already concluded that Iranian missiles brought down the plane most likely by accident, amid the heightened tensions between the US and Iran.

“The little credibility that the IslamicnRepublic had among its supporters suffered a major blow tonight,” said RouzbehnMirEmbrahim, an independent Iran analyst in New York and a consultant with the United Nations. “This tragedy undermines the image Iran has cultivated as a military power and weakened it significantly both regionally and internationally.”

Iranians began expressing anger toward the military on social media soon after the announcement, many of them using the term “harshest revenge,” which officials had repeatedly promised in the wake of the American MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Revolutionary Guards commander, last week.

“They were supposed to take their harsh revenge against America, not the people,” wrote Mojtaba Fathi, a journalist.

The Iranian military’s statement said the plane “took the flying posture and altitude of an enemy target” as it came close to an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base. It said that “under the circumstances, because of human error,” the plane “came under fire.”

The military said it would undertake “major reform in operations of all armed forces” to make sure that such an error never happened again. It said Revolutionary Guards officials had been ordered to appear on state media and give the public a full explanation.

In a statement of his own, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tried to place some of the blame on the US, saying on Twitter that the disaster was “caused by U.S. adventurism.” The military’s statement said there had been information suggesting the US was “preparing to aerially target sensitive defense and key sites and multiple targets in our country, and this led to even more sensitive defense posture by our antiaircraft units.”

However, the Iranians asked the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to help with the investigation, and the State Department granted waivers to allow the American agency to help. 

As already reported, on Jan. 9 a video appearing to show a missile fired into the Tehran sky early Wednesday morning and striking an object in the sky surfaced. Around that time, Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff.

As noted by #AW#ncontributor and world-famous modern military aviation author Tom Cooper “One can hear the airliner, one can see the SAM, the detonation, then hear both of these, and see the airliner going down… According to the poster [of the video], this was the SECOND SAM to hit the Ukrainian B737.”

Cooper was also the first to highlight that the Boeing 737 was apparently shot down by two Russian madenSA-15 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

“A pilot underway minutes behind the Ukrainian B737 says, from his POV, it was clear: either a bomb on board or shot down. The only force operating SA-15s in Iran – is the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].”

The Boeing 737 was apparently shot down by two Russian-made SA-15 surface-to-air missiles.

The video in this post appears to show a missile fired into the Tehran sky early Wednesday morning and striking an object in the sky. Around that time, a  Boeing 737-800 jetliner belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff.

As noted by #AW# contributor and world-famous modern military aviation author Tom Cooper “One can hear the airliner, one can see the SAM, the detonation, then hear both of these, and see the airliner going down… According to the poster [of the video], this was the SECOND SAM to hit the Ukrainian B737.”

Cooper was also the first to highlight that the Boeing 737 was apparently shot down by two Russian-made SA-15 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

“A pilot underway minutes behind the Ukrainian B737 says, from his POV, it was clear: either a bomb on board or shot down. The only force operating SA-15s in Iran – is the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].”

The Ukrainian plane crashed just north of the suburb.

According to CNN the footage was obtained by Nariman Gharib and shows a light in the sky, moving left to right and then exploding. 

CNN has asked Gharib for more information about who took the video and how he obtained it but has not yet received a response.

The US increasingly believes that Irannmistakenly shot down the Ukrainian airliner, according to multiple US officials. The working theory is based on continuing analysis of data from satellites, radar, and electronic data collected routinely by the US military and intelligence. Thanks to the data the US was able to see Iranian radar signals lock onto the jetliner before it was shot down.

The flight was downed following Iranian strikes on US forces in Iraq.

Photo by Ukraine International Airlines

Concorde 001 was specially modified with rooftop portholes for the mission and is currently on display with the Solar Eclipse mission livery at Musée de l’air et de l’espace.

“Concorde ready to intercept the fleeting shadow. Poised like a falcon at the runway awaiting the time, 10:08 UT, to fly up and snare the shadow. The long months of preparation are about complete —the corona to be viewed against the purple sky of space, darkened still further to reveal in full contrast the ethereal white of the solar corona.”

This entry appeared on NBC News and was written by Donald Liebenberg (Since 1996, Donald Liebenberg has been an adjunct professor in the physics and astronomy department at Clemson University) in his notebook on Jun. 30, 1973, as he sat aboard a Concorde supersonic jetliner poised for takeoff on a runway in the Canary Islands city of Las Palmas. Soon, several other scientists would have joined him to fly in the path of totality of a solar eclipse that would stretch across much of Africa.

Liebenberg started preparing for the 1973 eclipse about a year in advance. At the time, the Concorde, which could fly in excess of Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound and cruise at 60,000 feet, was not yet in commercial service. “Studying an eclipse from this fast-moving, high-flying plane meant I would be able to extend the amount of time I could collect precious data during totality,” he recalls.

“On eclipse day, we took off from LasnPalmas at 10:08 UT (Universal Time). We intercepted the totality and stayed within it for 74 minutes before descending and landing in the African nation ofnChad,” Liebenberg said.

At 74 minutes, the group of scientists aboard the Concorde set a record for the amount of time spent in totality that has never been broken. “To say the least, it was an experience I will never forget,” Liebenberg concluded.

The group of scientists used two airplanes to extend the apparent time of totality by flying along the eclipse path in the same direction as the Moon’s shadow as it passed over Africa. One of the planes was a prototype (c/n 001) of what was later to become the Concorde. The aircraft’s top speed of Mach 2 enabled scientists from Los Alamos, the Paris Observatory, the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Aberdeen, and CNRS to extend totality to more than 74 minutes; nearly 10 times longer than is possible when viewing a total solar eclipse from a stationary location. That Concorde was specially modified with rooftop portholes for the mission and is currently on display with the Solar Eclipse mission livery at Musée de l’air et de l’espace. The data gathered resulted in three papers published in Nature and a book.

The eclipse was also observed by a charter flight from Mount San Antonio College in Southern California. The DC-8 with 150 passengers intercepted the eclipse at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) just off the east coast of Africa and tracked the eclipse for three minutes. The passengers rotated seats every 20 seconds so that each passenger had three 20-second opportunities at the window to observe and take pictures.

A separate observation opportunity was provided on a specialized commercial cruise by the S.S. Canberra, which traveled from New York City to the Canary Islands and Dakar, Senegal, observing close to 8 minutes of a totality out in the Atlantic between those two stops in Africa. That cruise’s passengers included notables in the scientific community such as Neil Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, and the then 15-years old Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The following video (in the French language) features the total solar eclipse of Jun. 30, 1973, over Africa as seen from Concorde 001.

Photo by Arthur Gibson