Missile, technical malfunction among Iran crash leads: Kiev

KIEV: Investigators are pursuing several leads following the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane in Iran, including a surface-to-air missile strike, an act of terror and engine failure, a Ukrainian security official said on Thursday.

The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing went down outside Tehran shortly after take-off on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board. "For the moment we are working on seven different versions of the event that took place in Iran," Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council (RNBO), told AFP. The council is tasked with coordinating the probe into the disaster, the first fatal crash involving Ukraine’s biggest carrier UIA. Danilov also said on Facebook that the leads being studied include both technical malfunctions and foul play, but told AFP that "there is no priority version" yet.