Video shows missile hitting jet

Video verified by the New York Times appears to show an Iranian missile hitting a plane above Parand, near Tehran’s airport, the area where a Ukrainian airliner stopped transmitting its signal before it crashed on Wednesday.

A small explosion occurred when a missile hit the plane, but the plane did not explode, the video showed. The jet continued flying for several minutes and turned back toward the airport, the Times has determined. The plane flew toward the airport ablaze before it exploded and crashed quickly, other videos verified by the Times showed.

Visual and sonic clues in the footage matched flight path information and satellite imagery of the area near where the plane crashed. The satellite images were taken on Thursday and provided to the Times by Maxar Technologies, a space technology company. This helped to verify the video’s authenticity.

In the video, about 10 seconds elapse between the flash of impact with the plane and the sound of the explosion reaching the camera. The delay indicates the plane was a little over three kilometres from the camera at the time of impact. This comports with the path of the flight, as recorded by the flight tracking company FlightRadar24.

Buildings seen in the background of the video are at least five storeys high and have a distinctive design. Several rows of evenly spaced buildings are visible, consistent with the aerial view of the building compound in satellite imagery.

The small building seen to the left of the video, and the upright metal frame beside it, can both be seen in satellite pictures.

This equipment is seen briefly at the end of the video. It’s positioned less than nine metres from the small building, and can also be seen in satellite imagery of the site.