As discussed before it happened, there are a lot of side players/proxies that want the conflict to boil at a higher level and are cheering for a full scale war so that there will be a change in the entire political landscape in the mideast- their hope anyway. Some of those jihadi types get pretty fired up thinking of all those virgins.
Why could the plane not fly on one engine for the short hop required to land. They were near the airport right?
Well it could not have been one engine alone going out up as planes are designed to fly on one engine with more than enough power and maneuverability to land again. However if an engine explodes and sends shrapnel into the body it could affect control of the plane sending it down.
I dont' believe initial reports that pilots reported nothing, it may be true up to that point, but as soon as it happened there was some yelling or utterances and the black box will confirm it.
I do not believe my own missle theory because there was no streak of fire leading into the plane, and if truly hit by a missle, even a small one, the whole thing would have exploded like TWA did when people thought it was a missle.
My new theory, engine or SUITCASE bomb exploded rendering the plane out of control (i.e. hole in fuselage and damage to controls). I lean towards suitcase because:
1. Someone was filming exactly at the right time at some random plane taking off? Running after the plane while it was rising up before something happened? BULLSHIT. They were filming the plane specifically because they knew something was going to happen.
2. No way in hell Iran has the same security that TSA does and it must have been easy to get a bomb on board.
3. Why pick a Ukraine airplane? Because no other "Western" airline would be that easy to take down. I would think that Air France or any European airline that flies there has major security on its own on screening suitcases. Ukraine is more allied with West and Europe against Russia so easy target.
4. I believe this was a rogue attack not really set up by Iran government but some local isolated outfit looking to retaliate against anyone.
5. Within the next 5 days someone will take credit for the airline going down even if they are lying, so this will add fuel to the fire.
6. this was a new Boeing 737-800. Their engines do not explode.