Flight were killed. And we have dramatic new video to show you of the moment that the passenger plane hit the ground. I do warn you that it is graphic and some may find it dissturbing, shot from a surveillance camera. You can see there now bright light as the plane gets closer and then everything goes white. The plane hits the ground, explodes and the flaming debris. Hundreds of pieces of the plane strewn across the area on fire. We are live in tehran and kiev. Fred, a fairly fulsome apology with a couple of jabs at the u. S. As well. But your take on how tehran is handling it . Essentially they had to admit it. The evidence was overwhelming, correct . Well, i think in the end you are absolutely right. There was information coming in from the u. S. And canada. There seemed to be a growing body of information seeming to indicate that the plane was in fact shot down. Early today the Iranian Military actually came out and said that yes indeed they unintentionally shot down the plane by accident at that point. It is quite interesting to see the details they put out. There is quite a lot considering the amount of secrets you have around the military and the revolutionary guard core. They said they saw a lot of u. S. Planes flying around their border areas close to sensitive areas for iran. The country has a lot of sensitive military installations and that the ukrainian airliner was flying at an altitude and a pitch that made it to them seem like it was a threat. And in this phase of heightened military alert it was shot down by accident. Iranians said they will have a full investigation and hold those that are responsible for shooting the plane down, they are go to hold them accountable and there is going to be a trial. We heard it from the president and the foreign minister of the country. They are still taking a jab at the u. S. But they are saying it was a big error. I think the president of the country came out to call it an error that cant be justified. Unjustifiable mistake, michael. You know fred, the question that we keep coming back to, and you are right. The plane went down in an area right near a Missile Research center for the Islamic Revolutionary guard. That is a normal flight path. The question then has to be why were the iranians allowing civilian planes to take off after firing off the missiles and basically the country was on edge expecting a response from the u. S. And everyone obviously nervous . Why were the planes flying at all . That is a very good question and something that hasnt been answered yet. One of the things we have seen in a president from the president of iran and the Iranian Military is that they are go to refine their procedures and reform their procedures. It is unclear that means the procedures for the military with the way they track aircraft and the way that their alarm systems as well. But it might also mean how they react in case there is another situation like this with this heightened alert. I think right after the military strikes as the iranians were expecting or thinking that there might be some sort of a response. I think that was actually the Iranian Military in its statement saying that one of the reasons why they were on high alert is because President Trump said if the iranians retaliate for the killing of Qasem Soleimani america would strike back in a very hard way. That is the reason why they were on high alert. Why they then allowed civilian traffic to not only take off from the airport but use the flight path going over several sensitive military installations is something they will be asking themselves as well. Now it is unclear why that it was the case. It is unclear why there was civilian traffic going through there. But certainly that is something probably not only going to be looked at by iranian authorities but the Commission Investigating the air crash as well. The ukrainians are involved, ntsb of the u. S. , canadian and french authorities are involved because they made the engines for the plane. That will be one of the issues coming up, michael. Absolutely. Good to have you there on the spot, fred, in tehran. Lets go to kiev now where we find scott mcclain. We have been waiting to see what the response will be. It is morning where you are. Vladimir zelensky, the president , has issued a statement. Fill us in. That is right. A statement from the president saying this morning was not a good one, but it brought the truth. For the last couple of days the ukrainians were put in a difficult position with the u. S. , u. K. And canada saying it was shot down by a missile and the iranians denying it strongly. They have 45 investigators on the ground there and they are choosing their words carefully. The foreign minister was asked about access to the site for investigators and saying the investigators always complain about access and how quickly they have access and whether it is justified. He said it was hard to tell. He said he was asked about compensati compensation. He said if it was shot down they would work to get compensation for the families. Todays statement from Vladimir Zelensky left no doubt saying we insist on full admission of guilt, apologies through diplomatic channels, full investigation and justice for those that are responsible. Those responsible brought to justice. The return of the bodies and payment of compensation. He also goes on to say that he hopes that the investigation will continue without delays and that the 45 ukrainian investigators on the ground right now in iran get full and unfettered access to the site. We have gotten a new statement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of canada calling it a national tragedy. A similar message from zelensky. They want justice for the victims and making sure they get full cooperation from iran. Later we are go to hear from the airline. They had statements off the bat but said little since then. It it will be interesting to get their take on this. Initially there were questions about the air worthiness of the aircraft, the maintenance schedule and things like that. Obviously those have been put to rest in a very big way. But i think that there are open questions about why this flight was allowed to take off at all. The Airline Initially said if they had even a hint that there was some kind of danger they would not have allowed it to take off. The foreign minister said they analyzed the flight path. The plane was where it was supposed to be in the corridor for commercial jetliners and should have been off limits for any of these systems. Even then, given the heightened tensions between iran and the United States and missiles fired into iraq at u. S. Bases hours before, i think it is a fair question why any airline, not just Ukraine International airlines was flying at that time. A disconnect between civilian and military systems in this situation. That is the big question. Why on earth was it flying at all. Scott mcclain in kiev, ukraine. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Joining me now from perth in Western Australia is the editor in chief at airline ratings. Good to see you my friend. How shocking is it given what had gone on in the hours prior and the virtual war footing iran would have been on expecting a u. S. Response that these planes were taking off . Indeed. Quite a number before the fatal flight. As your correspondent in kiev said earlier, this was a standard departure. Followed the runway and made a slight turn to the right. To suggest it turned towards a military air base in a threatening manner is nonsense. Before coming on air i had a look at more departures from tehran airport and all were following the exact same flight as this did. That does not hold any water at all, michael. Yeah. Good point. The word is that the aircraft was at an altitude and condition of flight that resembled a hostile target. As you are saying clearly and Everything Else we have seen it is hard to see how that is the case if it was on a standard flight path. The other thing that is so important here, a civilian aircraft has, unlike a military aircraft, they had no idea this is coming. They are not putting out flares and have early warning. No, indeed. They do not have the detection system a military airplane would have. The only exception is el al. They have that or used to. And they had flares and what not at one stage. I do not know if they still do or not. But certainly back in the 70s and 80s they did. Back to the point of this aircraft, no. Absolutely no idea what hit them and rendered the plane unflyable, uncontrollable and knocked out all of the systems straight away. Hopefully the passengers on board would not have known much about it either. You know the other thing too is, you know, lets say a theoretical u. S. Warplane going into iranian air space does not have its transponder on. But a civilian airplane does. Should that not be something that a military missile battery is aware of . We made the point several times over the last couple of hours. I can look up flight aware on my phone on an app and see where planes are around the world. How on earth does the military not do that or hear a transponder . Indeed. They should have been given the transponder codes. Whether they were or whether they were given them or not we dont know. Yes. The operator could have his ipad or iphone on with the flight aware or radar 24. You can see every airplane commercial. You are right. A military airplane launching an attack would be first of all, below the radar, ground hugging aircraft or it would be a stealth aircraft and you would not pick it up either. An airplane that is motoring along at 8,000 feet, you know, is not a threat. Not an incoming threat if you like. The explanations we have been offered are simply not acceptable. Other than the fact that somebody made a terrible, terrible mistake and hasnt been briefed properly or trained properly, who knows. Command, control and training, absolutely contenders in this situation. Geoffrey thomas, thanks so much. Under poor circumstances. All right. We are go to take a short break. When we come back we are live with more on irans admission that human error caused it to shoot down the ukrainian passenger plane. Stay with us. Also australians getting a rare reprieve for the moment after months of fires burning. But the dangers are still there. And they remain. We will have the latest live from australia when we come back. Wide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. This is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. Even before they need it. Need, with esri location technology, you can see what others cant. Because its tailored to you . Take the personal assessment and get matched with a proven weight loss plan. Find out which customized plan can make losing weight easier for you myww join today with the ww triple play we continue to follow the breaking news out of tehran where iran has admitted to shooting down a ukrainian passenger flight on wednesday. President rouhani vowing to prosecute those responsible calling it a terrible mistake. Irans foreign minister, while also apologizing is blaming a crisis caused by u. S. Adventurism. The jet was heading to kiev in ukraine when it crashed after takeoff killing all 176 people on board. There were a couple of caveats but they were strong and apologetic. Does it change anything in the regional dynamic or not . First of all, it is a tragic reputational blow to the Iranian Revolutionary guard who is understood to be manning that surfacetoair battery. Really near to the International Airport in tehran. Perhaps there will be a tarnishing of their reputation here in iraq and the shiia militia supported by iran. The iranians and the United States recognized they reached a conclusion to the killing of soleimani. The shiia militia pledged to fight on if the United States does not withdraw their troops from iraq. Indeed the Prime Minister here said that following a phone call with mike pompeo about 24 hours ago that he asked the United States to begin working towards wraul. Mike pompeo said that is not how he would characterize the conversation. There is a lot of political pressure to get the United States to withdraw from shiia groups but others including sunni and more moderate elements and all of the kurds want the United States to stay because of the threat of the Islamic State continues to exist. It comes at a time isis is regrouping in iraq. Canadian and u. S. Forces falled back where does it leave isis. I imagine smiling a little. There is a real moment of opportunity for the socalled Islamic State here. It is nonsense the claims coming from the white house and donald trump in particular that 100 of the Islamic State has been destroyed. The area under its control has been taken away from them largely but they very much continue to exist. There are almost daily attacks here. The training the foreign courses have been contributing to is absolutely essential as is the air support they can proid but the iraqis have gone a long way getting their own systems working. They are very, very angry and they want an immediate cessation and the iraqis have not given permission for the drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani and more importantly the hardest line backed shiia militia and it is that militia that promised to react unless the u. S. Withdraw. That could reduce the tensions. In terms of how the tragic downing of the airline near tehran is being interpreted on the ground, it is being seen as a separate issue. There will be an attempt to make it the u. S. Fault for starting this military pressure in the first place but a tragic mistake, michael. A very delicate balance. Sam, thank you. Appreciate that. All right. As tensions simmer between iran and the u. S. We are now learning on the same night the u. S. Forces killed that iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, they unsuccessfully targeted another senior Iranian Military official in yemen according to u. S. Officials. The pentagon hasnt released any information on that mission or how the u. S. Attempted to carry it out. The target was a key commander and it continues to raise the questions of where was the immdediacy in killing soleimani if they were acting against another official in yemen. Donald trump offering explanations. The u. S. Military targets in iraq. Some lawmakers questioned the justification for the strike. Without offering any specifics President Trump now said a top iranian commander killed in a u. S. Airstrike was plotting attacks on multiple u. S. Embassies. I can reveal i believe it would have been four embassies. His secretary of state spoke in broad terms dismissing criticism that the administration failed to back up the claim that killing soleimani was justified by a specific threat. We had enemies on an immediate threat. There is no doubt there was a serious of attacks plotted by soleimani. It was real. Pressed to clarify his definition of the word imminent, pompeo paused. What is your definition of imminent . This was go to happen. American lives were at risk. We would have been negligent had we not recommended that the president take this action on Qasem Soleimani. He made the right call. Lawmakers said they were never told about plots during closeddoor meeting this week. Not one word of that was mentioned. Pompeo said they were aware to back up the authorization of force without congressional approval. In this case the Intelligence Community got it mumtly right. The president s frustration was on full display in ohio when he attacked democrats for passing a resolution to limit future action by iran. They are vicious, horrible people. He is furious with members of his own party after three members crossed party lines. The crisis with iran is playing out as President Trump faces a looming impeachment trial in the senate as nancy pelosi is prepared to send the articles of impeachment to the senate floor. Democrats, want National Security advisor john bolton to testify and he said he would if he were subpoenaed but President Trump said he would invoke president ial privilege to stop that from happening. Mitch mcconnell seems not so keen. When we come back, more of our special breaking News Coverage as iran admits it shot down a passenger plane by mistake. We will take you live to tehran next. Vo life doesnt give you many second chances. But a subaru can. dad you guys ok . You alright . Wow. avo eyesight with precollision braking. Standard on the subaru ascent. The threerow subaru ascent. Love. Its what makes a subaru a subaru. Or more on car insurance. S could save you fifteen percent Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker . I look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. You have potential. You haveoh boy. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. It took plenty of work to get here. 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Our breaking news, iran admitting that a ukrainian passenger plane was targeted and shot down unintentionally on wednesday. The iranian president rouhani said he regrets the mistake and vows to prosecute those responsible for crashing the plane. Iran is not taking all of the responsibility though. The countrys Armed Forces Headquarters blamed increased radar activity and fear of u. S. Aggression for the mistake. Fred, your read on these apologies, the foreign minister having a dig at america. But generally speaking they are putting their hand up to say yes, it was us. Yes. They are putting their hand up saying it was them and that they made a giant and fatal error as well. The military saying they were seeing a lot of increased activity on the radars, seeing the plane close to some of their sensitive sites. This coming hours after conducting a strike saying the Ukrainian Airlines plane was flying at an altitude and a pitch making it seem like a threat. They are saying an investigation is already underway. They are going to refine their procedures to make sure this never happens again. A lot of criticism over the last couple of days senior government members saying it was an unjustifiable mistake and offering sympathies and apologies to the family members of those killed and also to the other nations who had citizens on board the plane as well. Michael. Great reporting as always. Good to have you there in the iranian capital, thank you. Turning our attention now to a funeral procession underway for the gulf nation declaring three days of mourning to honor the middle easts longest reigning monarch ruling for half a century. State media hailing his balanced policy respected by the whole world. The u. S. Embassy in the capital calling him one of the worlds great leaders. Now in other news firefighters in australia finally catch a break of sorts. When we come back what is causing the enormous bush fires. We will be live for you in australia. We will be right back. As parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. vo why the aceves family chose verizon. We all use our phones very differently. These two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. And my oldest is learning to be a pilot. We need a Reliable Network because i need to know hes safe. cause as soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. Mama laughter vo the network more people rely on, gives you more. Like plans your family can mix and match starting at just 35. So, everyone gets the plan they need. And apple music on us. Plus, iphone 11 on us when you buy the latest iphone. Thats verizon. Back now to our breaking news out of tehran where president rouhani admitted his country unintentionally shooting down the ukrainian passenger plane near the capital on wednesday calling it a terrible mistake. Irans armed forces blamed the crash on human error and the foreign minister saying the crisis was caused by u. S. Adventurism after the u. S. Killed a top iranian general and he also apologized for the mistake at the same time. The plane was heading for kiev whether it crashed shortly after takeoff killing all 176 people on board. Australia officials opened be h beaches in south wales as bush fires eased somewhat from now. Cooler temperatures and rainfall giving firefighters a chance to get the upper hand on some of the massive fires. Mild conditions are expected to last for a week. The main fire season is not even at its peak. Firefighters in New South Wales battling 136 fires and dozens of them uncontained and uncontrolled and authorities are warning citizens risks are far from over. The devastation obviously is vast. The loss, painful and heartbreaking. There is hardly anything left in mallacoota in the state of victoria. Holy [ bleep ] get behind me. Mallacoota. The fire got everything it needed to get worse and it happened unfortunately. Heavy life and death situations. This is by far the most hectic i have felt this bad. Everyone that i knew of if they didnt have a boat they were evacuated down to the main whatever where the fire engines and everyone was there to take care of them. The last resort was to jump into the water. Locals and everyone that i knew that had boats just got in the middle of the lake. We decided to [ bleep ] now the fire front has come through. Everything started to get black and then it went really black and it went red. It was quite scary, actually. Start to get the dogs out the front. Supplies. I hope everyone is just [ bleep ] the houses man. Get into the water. It is [ bleep ] chaos. Fire is a strange thing. It goes around some peoples houses and others are completely gone. Its crazy. This is stanley avenue which is the most worse affected area i believe. Some residents decided to stay. Chad here, he saved his family and friends home in the street with a bucket of water. Those guys are crazy. This is going to affect me directly and also everyone in town. It is probably one of the biggest in town. Some of the people actually lost their homes that work here so. I never have seen anything like it. Will the town bounce back . Yeah. Of course we will. People will get their houses rebuilt. We will move on and keep doing what we are doing right now until we have rain access. Yeah. I am looking forward to going to see my misses and kid. Derek van damme is here with more on the fires in australia and nasty weather in parts of the u. S. We talk about relief. They are not even in peak fire season. We have not reached the hottest time of the year for much of eastern australia. Fire season lasts right through february. We have a few difficult weeks and months ahead of us still. Residents who have been here before know what they have in front of them. The latest figures, over 160 active fires burning. Plotted out from melbourne northward. Incredible scenario taking place over the past eight weeks to say the least. There is reprieve on the horizon in the form of a cold front that is passing through. Difficult conditions on the ground with a change in the wind direction for some of those fighters on the front edge of the bush fires. It is also bringing in cooler weather and the chance of rain. We have taken our computer models and extended them out ten days to give them an idea of where the rain is stepping up. Across the coastal regions of quee queensland. This is muchneeded rain. It couldnt come soon enough. We are expecting anywhere from 50 to 150 millimeters over the next week and a half. That is a substantial amount of rain and significantly more than we anticipated over the last couple of months. Simples. You can see how we do have a brief break from the heat but we see the mercury start to climb as we enter the work week. Just east of oklahoma city. I want to run this video to show you a funnel cloud that is spotted. Omino ominous, dark looking sky. We have a multiday Severe Weather scenario taking shape across the central portions of america. You can see the storm system unfolding before your eyes. A complex storms with many facets and varibles. Today, mississippi, alabama into georgia and the atlanta region where cnn headquarters is located. A line of severe storms. And the potential for over a foot of snow for northern portions of the great lakes. Jackson and montgomery where we have our latest chances. Over 50 million americans have a flood threat or warning taking place as we speak. Rainfall totals, we are talking about two to four inches of rainfall. A lot of moisture coming out of this system. Latest models indicating a foot or more of snowfall of Northern Michigan into portions of wisconsin. The warning stretching from west of chicago to outside of the detroit region. They have an ice storm warning for that region, the thumb of michigan as they call it because michael we have the potential for over a half inch of ice with winds gusting to 50 Miles Per Hour that will bring down power lines and take out the power. All right. Good to see you my friend. Thanks for that. We will continue to follow the breaking news. We will have more as iran admits it did shoot down the passenger plane by mistake. Stay with us. We will be right back. I always dreamed of teaching kids and having kids of my own. I didnt realize that having kids would be the hard part. So we planned to start ivf treatments. Now im ready for someone to call me mom. At Northwestern Mutual, our version of Financial Planning helps you live your dreams today. Find a Northwestern Mutual advisor at nm dot com. Helps you live your dreams today. Tmobile 5g is here. And its nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. This is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. I am Michael Holmes in atlanta. Lets get you up to speed on the breaking news. The iranian president rouhani apologizing for what he calls a disast disasterous mistake. President rouhani vowing to prosecute those responsible. The crash on wednesday morning came a few hours after iran launched a barrage of missiles at military bases in iraq where u. S. Troops are stationed. Polls are minutes away from closing in taiwan. Voters have been choosing who will be their next president. It is a decision that will define the territorys relationship with an increasingly powerful china. More now on what is at stake. It may look like a rock festival but it is an election rally in taiwan hosted by metal rocker turned politician freddie lynn running as an independent. He supports gaining the respect of western nations like the u. S. As well as their progressive values, championing gay rights in taiwan and rights in hong kong. We all see what happened in hong kong. The self governing island of 24 million has been closely watching the dramatic scenes in hong kong where millions turned out to march against the government and young protesters clashed violently with police. Taiwan has capitalized on the crisis. The whole world is watching. After hong kong what choice will taiwan make. The chinese president said taiwan should reunionifiy under the governing principle in hong kong. The taiwan president believes one country, two systems is a failure and that taiwan will never accept it. Relations between taiwan and china deteriorated since 2016. Taiwan lost diplomatic ties with a number of foreign governments and china suspended issuing visas for tourists visiting the island. They accuse thai of using the hong kong protest for political gain. Hong kong people are bleeding from fighting against china. What have you done to help hong kong . The people are bleeding while you are enjoying electoral gains. More people in taiwan want a formal independence. It increased from 20 to 30 in 2019. Although thai is seen as the favorite if her party loses control rival parties could block bills disliked by china like the law passed last month making it illegal to accept chinese funds for political activities. Days before the election this appeal for a peaceful life in a free and democratic country. We hope todays taiwan will be hong kongs tomorrow. We all hope that. Hong kong is a rallying cry for an election on an island 700 kilometers away, a referendum on the relationship with china. Thanks for watching cnn newsroom everyone. Cnn newsroom continues now with george howl and nell and natali. See you next. This is cnn breaking news. 2 59 a. M. On the u. S. East coast. Following the breaking news out of iran this hour. Iran now admitting it shot down a ukrainian passenger plane by mistake. I am george howell. I am natalie allen. Thanks for being with us. Iran initially denied shooting the plane down but leaders there now say a missile fired by mistake brought down that ukrainian jet killing all 176 people on board. United states, canada and others already concluded an Iranian Missile was responsible. It happened hours after iran launched missiles at iraq
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