More often than not, nothing is a coincidence.
Shortly after the Islamic Republic of Iran launched missiles at US military bases in Iraq earlier this week, a Ukranian passenger jet (with dozens of Canadian citizens onboard) was shot down while it was leaving Iran.
Iran claims the plane crashed because of mechanical issues, but they're unwilling to hand over the black box and experts claim they probably shot down the plane themselves.
The timing of the crash, coming just hours after Iran fired missiles towards U.S. bases in Iraq, immediately prompted speculation that the plane had been accidentally shot down.
That premise is shared by experts from the OPS group, an aviation risk monitoring organization, who noted that pictures of the plane debris show holes in the plane’s fuselage and wing.
“We would recommend the starting assumption to be that this was a shootdown event, similar to MH17 – until there is clear evidence to the contrary,” said the group in a statement, adding that the photos “show obvious projectile holes in the fuselage and a wing section.”