Why were those foreigners on the flight? who or what caused them to leave Iran?

[Demonaut]

I fixed the post, I meant Iran but typed Iraq

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. To get to the other side. NT

[elleng]

2. LOLOLOL!

[Sonny Mirviss]

3. Getting their asses out of Dodge

Before Trump leveled the place?

My question is why were they there in the 1st place?

And, why did Iran shoot down the civilian airliner.

[angstlessk]

4. Who said Iran shot it down?

[Sonny Mirviss]

6. I don't believe in coincidences

Occam's Razor and all that.

BTW, that wasn't a new Boeing 737 Max. and planes don't just catch fire in midair and crash.

[angstlessk]

14. There were 81 Iranians, many Canadians, no Americans

so, from whole cloth is where you claim evidence.

[Loki Liesmith]

27. Occam's razor requires that you believe in coincidences.

[tblue37]

7. I'm guessing it was a badly aimed missile. nt

[Sonny Mirviss]

8. I'm guessing it was a perfectly aimed missile

And some incompetent Iranian missile commander panicked.

[Bev54]

28. Look at the video, there were no missiles

63 Canadians on board, do you think we are suspicious characters? Could be a bomb or something but Iran is not going to bring down a passenger airliner that just took off from their airport, in their country. They may be bad actors but they are not stupid, that is left for Trump.

[jberryhill]

32. "And, why did Iran shoot down the civilian airliner"

That's a couple of leaps.

Even among the possibilities of intentional acts, if it were shot down, who is to say that there were not others with assets inside Iran who were interested in there not being any large planes taking off at around that time?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. They weren't leaving Iraq, they were leaving Iran.

The crash occurred as the aircraft took off from the airport in Tehran. Which is in Iran.

[onenote]

9. Go easy. It's only a difference of one letter.

and we know that there is a lot of misspelling on DU.

[Demonaut]

12. fixed it, thanks

[MineralMan]

10. Uh, the flight left from Tehran in Iran.

So, there's that, to begin with. The airline was Ukranian. Why wouldn't there be foreigners on it?

I don't think that's the pertinent question, really.

[Demonaut]

13. I fixed the op, the question is pertinent even if the crash is determined to be an accident'

A pending war is good reason to leave

[MineralMan]

17. Canadians. Visiting Iran, I suppose.

[onenote]

23. and Iranians attending school in Canada home for the winter break

and heading back to school

[cwydro]

11. Apparently many were Iranian students returning to Ukraine.

I didn’t know Iranians went to school there, but that was a CNN story.

I suppose the rest were traveling for all the reasons any of us travel. Shame they ended up leaving on that particular day.

[onenote]

16. They weren't necessarily going to school in Ukraine. Many were Canadian students

Not a lot of airlines fly direct to Tehran, so if you're a student who travelled home to Iran for the winter semester break and were heading back to school, the flight on Ukraine air was probably the first leg of a trip that would connect to another airline in Kyiv.

[cwydro]

18. Ok, that makes more sense.

Still, much sadness in Iran that 82 of their own citizens were killed.

[Bev54]

29. We have a lot of foreign students

And we have many Iranian born citizens, I have met many. They are people just like the rest of us, many of them are highly educated and want to live in peace. It is their government that is the problem, I think you guys would understand how that feels.

[onenote]

15. A lot of students but not necessarily students from the Ukraine.

Around a third of the passengers were Canadians, or more precisely, Canadian students. They included a large contingent of Iranian born students who attend college in Canada and were back in Iran for the winter break, which was ending. Air Canada doesn't fly to Iran so it is likely that these (and many others) were on the Ukraine Air flight on the way to make a connection in Kyev to get back to Canada (or to other countries that don't fly directly to Iran).

[mahina]

26. How terrible for them.

Their poor families

[brooklynite]

19. As much as Trump wishes it was, Iran isn't isolated...

It has regular air travel to Europe and Asia, and a robust tourist and business trade.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. +1000 My son and I flew Ukraine International from Kivi to

Jordan and back last year. I also was looking to take a tourist trip to Iran in 2020.

[gopiscrap]

20. sounds fishy to me

that this "accident" happened exactly as the rockets were firing. In addition just found out that NO US nationals were on board

[onenote]

22. The fact that there were no US nationals isn't that surprising

While it is legal for Americans to travel to Iran, it isn't easy and the number that do in any given year is pretty small.

[maxsolomon]

24. Was it not just a regular UA flight?

Those things happen.

[Recursion]

25. I mean, the impending war?

Maybe I'm not understanding your question?

[jberryhill]

30. Why are "foreigners" on an international flight?

Is that really a question?

People travel in and out of Iran for all kinds of reasons. Unlike the US, much of the rest of the world is not on a war footing with them, and has not been for decades.

[AncientGeezer]

33. I may be reading this wrong....if so whoop me

Are you saying/suggesting that foreign flyers don't come here more than any other nation on the planet?

I'd bet money more "foreigners" fly into ...Hartsfield, O'Hare, LAX than....Iran isn't in the top 50 landing zones....

[jberryhill]

34. You seem to be misreading what I wrote

I was responding to a post which expressed puzzlement that many "foreigners" would be on a flight between Iran and Ukraine. IMHO, the puzzlement arose from perhaps an incorrect assumption that not many persons travel to and from Iran from elsewhere.

US Citizens are not extremely likely to be on a flight from Iran to Ukraine, because very few US citizens visit Iran, compared to, say, other persons from different countries in Central Asia.

However, one would expect a mix of quite a few nationalities to be on such a flight.

You seem to have misunderstood my point that one would expect an assortment of nationalities to be on an international flight, and that it is not unusual that a number of "foreigners" (whatever that may have meant) were on this flight.

[AncientGeezer]

35. Got'cha....appreciate the clarification.

[HipChick]

31. Some were British citizens

visiting family..