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Dangerous Assumptions

Airbus A321 EI-ETJ in 2014
(Sergey Korovkin 84 via Wikipedia Creative Commons)
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A Russian jetliner crash in Egypt has led to immediate and widespread speculation about its cause, including an airline executive's suggestion of a missile or bomb.
  • The article strongly criticizes this early speculation as reckless, unhelpful, and unsupported by evidence, especially given the very early stage of the official accident investigation.
  • It urges all parties—the airline, media, and public—to refrain from "premature conclusions" and to stick to facts until the official investigation is complete.
  • The author notes that initial conjectures about air disasters rarely align with the probable cause listed in the final accident report.
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The Internet is rife with speculation as to what may have caused the crash of a Russian jetliner in Egypt on Saturday after an airline executive categorically ruled out pilot error or a mechanical problem.

The suggestion by the executive with airline Kogalymavia is that a missile or a perhaps a bomb brought down the Airbus A321, killing all 224 aboard. Conspiracy theorists have latched onto the statement and expanded it into a full-blown, made-for-TV narrative that terrorists targeted Flight 9268 as retribution for Russia’s involvement in Syria’s civil war.

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