Video appears to show moment Ukraine plane was shot down over Iran

Video taken from the ground appears to show the moment a Ukrainian jetliner went downshortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday, killing 176 people, in what officials believe was a mistaken missile strike by Iran.

The video, verified by NBC News, shows a plane in the night sky and a bright flash near its flight path, followed eventually by the sound of an explosion in the distance.

Flight PS752 reportedly flew for several minutes, ablaze, before crashing to the ground.

According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, 82 people on board were Iranian, 63 Canadian, and 11 Ukrainian, including the nine crew members. Ten were from Sweden, four from Afghanistan, three from Germany and three from the United Kingdom.

Multiple world leaders and intelligence officials say the plane was likely struck by accident. Both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday the flight may have been hit by an “unintentional” Iranian missile launch.

One Western intelligence official told NBC News there is high confidence the plane was felled by an accidental missile strike. The source, who receives high level briefings from U.S. intelligence agencies, says the evidence includes satellite imagery and communications intercepts.

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The plane’s operator, Ukraine International Airlines, said 167 passengers and nine crew members were aboard the Boeing 737-800 when the plane took off from Tehran International Airport en route to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, at 6:10 a.m. local time (9:40 p.m. ET). It disappeared from the radars a few minutes after departure.

Using satellite imagery and social media posts showing the moment the plane crashed, NBC News’s Social Newsgathering team was able to verify that the video does appear to show flight PS752 being struck in midair on Wednesday morning in Iran by a foreign object. This determination was made by pinpointing the location of where the video was most likely captured.

The Telegram video appears to have been filmed in the Iranian city of Parand, according to the investigative outfit Bellingcat. Parand is approximately 18 miles from Imam Khomeini International Airport where the flight originated from.

Flight tracking data from the website FlightRadar24 shows that the plane traveled near Parand, and satellite imagery from the area paints a clearer picture of what viewers see in the Telegram video.

Features of a white building to the left of the video match closely with what’s shown in satellite imagery from the same area in Parand.

In a separate video of the crash which surfaced on Wednesday that was also verified by NBC News’ Social Newsgathering team, the person filming the video is heard saying the name “Ferdosiye.” This is the name of a city in Iran that’s about 22 miles away from Parand. These locations are relatively close to where the aircraft remains were recovered. The crash site appears to be near Iranian village Khalajabad, according to the satellite imagery firm Maxar.