Originally Posted by
Sallyann1234
One would expect such a collision to cause power cuts somewhere in the city. There were no reports of such.
From the video it appears that the aircraft was flying (under what degree of control is another story) at some altitude above the ground (certainly higher than power lines) up till the point of the big flare-up, then plunged to the ground in seconds. One may propose an educated guess that the flare-up was the result of an in-flight structural failure releasing fuel (or the existing fire progressed to the point of igniting one of the fuel tanks), from there the wreckage fell on a ballastic trajectory. Soot on parts of the wreckage (eg. VS) with no adjacent ground fire traces support this.
Of course the key remaining question is what caused the initial fire and the apparent total loss of electrical systems. I doubt the CVR/FDR will be of much use, both would have stopped recording at the time of electrical failure.
Have said it before, but with all the noise on the thread it is now deeply burried so let me repeat: in a totalitarian society (and let's not open a debate whether Iran is one) EVERYTHING that appears in formal news outlets is controlled by the authorities. I would find it extremely unlikely that if any Iranian military unit would have committed such a blunder (which by itself is not at all inconceivable), free access would have been given to local press to the wreckage, and photos permitted to be published. Were that the case, by sunrise authorties would have known in full detail what happened, and as a knee jerk reaction would have done everything in their power to supress incriminating information.