A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 crashed earlier on Wednesday and taking the lives of all 176 passengers not long after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.

Now, according to Reuters, it would appear that Iran has zero intention of giving the black box from the plane to Boeing for research purposes:

Iran will not give the black box of the crashed Ukrainian airliner to planemaker Boeing, the head of Tehran’s civil aviation organization was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Ali Abedzadeh also said it was not clear which country Iran would send the box to so that its data could be analyzed, semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

A “black box” is a device that records the last minutes of planes that crash, and are designed to withstand extreme abuse in order to give researchers clues as to what happened after the fact. The flight that took off and subsequently crashed had taken to the sky while Iran was firing missiles at Iraqi military bases in order to try to kill Americans.

According to The Hill, an Iranian transportation ministry official blamed the crash on an engine fire causing a complete loss of control, which resulted in the crash.

However, evidence points to something more sinister than an engine fire. Journalist Ian Miles Cheong posted footage of the aircraft going down and posted pictures that show that it was clearly hit with shrapnel.

All evidence, including video, points to PS752 being shot down by a surface-to-air missile, burning up in mid air and falling to the ground. There's extensive damage on the plane that could've only been caused by shrapnel from a mid-air detonation. pic.twitter.com/TpsfUeM0u8 — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 8, 2020

This looks like shrapnel damage on the Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, which went down near Tehran tonight. Pictures 2 and 3 show shrapnel damage on MH17, shot down by an SA-11 Buk surface-to-air missile in 2014. (via @Kaitain_AZ ) pic.twitter.com/z5J5ZIf0Rm — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 8, 2020

Facts: – If there was an engine fire the plane would’ve slowed down, and the pilots would’ve made their way back to the airport. It kept climbing.

– Fire suppression systems would’ve prevented the plane from turning into a ball of fire.

– Shrapnel damage on wings & fuselage. pic.twitter.com/q0lhwhjNYu — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 8, 2020

Another interesting tidbit to consider.

As one user pointed out, and engine fire would not have allowed the plane to continue climbing to that height and with the speeds that the plane had at the time.

The data from their ADS-B disputes this. An engine failure/fire wouldn’t allow this plane to continue climbing at 2800’/minute at 318 mph… They’re lying. pic.twitter.com/YJx3iNTAYG — Pierre Dillecto (@TheGreenNewDill) January 8, 2020

It should also be noted that an Iranian launch site just so happened to be right next to the plane’s flight path.

Is it just me or is just a coincidence that the Iranian Malard missile launch site just happens to be in front of the flight path of the Ukrainian flight? pic.twitter.com/RFI9mbLMnF — Kaitain 🇺🇸 (@Kaitain_AZ) January 8, 2020

Let’s weigh some facts.

The plane took off as a missile attacks was raining hell around the area. The claim by Iran is that there was an engine fire, yet if there was an engine problem that bad then the plane would not have functioned as it normally would have with the speed and the climb is was going through. Pictures show that the plane was clearly hit with some kind of shrapnel.

With Iran refusing to hand over the black box, it’s hard not to arrive at the conclusion that the plane was, in truth shot down. Keep in mind that at this time, many reports are still unconfirmed, yet it appears that unconfirmed reports are exactly what Iran wants. The less truth we know, the better it is for them.

RedState will keep you updated on this story as it progresses.