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and we are following breaking news out after teheran where leaders admit the passenger jet shot down thursday was targeted. the u.s. reached that conclusion based on evidence. the plane crashed a few hours after iran launched missiles and military bases in iraq housing u.s. troops and iranian forces were on alert for that. all 176 people on board the flight were killed.

cnn correspondent fred pliken. and fred, you are on the spot there in teheran. how do you think the iranian president. what is your read on what they said? >> reporter: yeah, the president, the foreign minister and the iranian military came out and were the first ones to this morning to issue a statement they had shot down that airport. a lot of people were surprised by that. this is a secretive organization, the moit. they came out and said there was height haddened military activity after the iranian missile strike on the bases in iraq housing u.s. forces. they had seen aircraft and they were in a heightened state of aa letter. the way they put it.

they said the plane was flying on a course close to iranian revolutionary base. and they were picking up activity and they said the way the plane was flying, said the pitch of the airporcraft, made appear as a threat. and therefore by mistake, it was shot down. they said they are going to hold those accountable. and they are saying they are going to reform their procedures and go through their procedures to try to ensure something like this does not happen again. it certainly is a fulltsome explanation. they are going to offer more details and you are absolutely right. they do take a swipe at the u.s.

saying it's an after a threat from p the trump. but they are responsible for shooting plane do you and the former minister came out and he apologized to the iranian nation, to all the countries that had citizens on board and the families of those who perished on that flight. tragedyicly, one of the things, michael, one of the things that is painful. you look at the passenger list, a lot of people from canada, a lot of people who were on the flight were dual nationals that iran does not recognize. so for this country, it was mostly iranians that were shot down by the iranian military. it hurts a lot of people here a great deal and the politicians are aware of that. the president, his apology was very remarkable. because he base klis called it

mistake inexcusable. unjustifiable is the word he used. he is criticizing those who shot down the plane. not something you generally see here. the criticism to be portrayed internationally by an iranian leader. he is issues apologies and says he is going to come out on national tv with a statement soon as well. we are obviously going to be monitoring for it as the breaking news unfolds. >> absolutely. his words, a great tragedy and unforgiven't m unforgivable mistake. the number of iranians on the flight. what about domestic fall out i hear on social media. you hear them complaining and says it's horrendous. what is the potential domestic fall out because they were

mainly iranians? >> yeah, i think there is certainly a great potential for domestic fall out. that would have been probably even big fehr the military and the iranian government had not act no acknowledged they had shot down this plane. there was information coming from the foreign intelligence. they didn't believe i was a missile. they called it theory invalid. and they said we can't believe. they thought the plane would have traveled out of the sky rather than try to fly back to the airport but it was clear there was mounting information that seemed to indicate there was a missile that took this plane down. the fact it was all iranians on there makes it tragic, certainly is a cause for maybe anger among

parts of the iranian public. shooting down a plane with passengers is something a lot of people will be highly critical of and it plays a heightened role as well. the iranian nation, one of the big historic events in the 140-year history is the fact that the airanian civil airline was shoth down in the persian gulf. the iranians felt they were badly treated and feel there was never a public apology, an official apology issued and that is something that every anytime you go here, you hear about that. there is always documentaries on iranian tv and mem moemorials, and you go to the usa embassy, they will tell you that on the tours in there.

they hear that information and it's very key to the iranians, it's key to the politics and the military and to the iranian military now. and for eye rairan to be in a pn where they shot down the airliner, it's important to be transparent about that and to come forward as fast as possible. >> a lot still to come including why civilian aircraft was flying at all in heightened tensions around military sites as you reported. fred, we will check in with you again. let's go to kiev in ukraine and be scott mcclain. the ukrainians, they have been chosing their words carefully. but there was a sense that this was a missile. they had gotten information from the u.s. what's the likely reaction there? i know that it's only early in the morning there.

>> that's right. we have put in calls to the officials here. we are waiting to hear back from them. they are also expected to hear from the officials from the airline later today. they were planning a press conference to talk about it even yesterday. it should not come as a surprise. the foreign minister said they considering a range of possibilities, a missile strike was obviously one of them. the information, the intelligence they had gotten from the u.s. and the uk they said was very the solid. so there were other theories but it seemed like they were moving in that direction. what made it difficult for ukraine is they have 45 of their own investigators on the ground there assisting and trying to get answers, trying to repatriate the bodies.

they have chosen their wards carefully, pleading with all the countries involved to present evidence if you have it. but other wise wait for the outcome of the invest gigags. what made it tough, you have the u.s., the uk and canada saying it was struck by a missile. and you have them lying and you have 176 families caught in the middle of that wondering what to believe. we have been speaking with family and friends the last couple days an at the airport since it happened. and yesterday, i remember eed the wife of one of the pilots interview -- introduced herself ass wife or widow of the pilot. it's hard to be sure. tact facts are hard to come by. there is little solid evidence presented. the americans nor the british presented anything publicly.

they hadn't got tonight black boxes. so all of the families of the victims really had to go on what they knew about the pie los and their loved ones. the nine-flight crew members, all ukrainian nationals. they were respected. professionals. the pilots had a combined 31,000 flight hours. the equivalent of flying for 3 1/2 years straight. no one could possibly imagine there is pilot error here. really no complains about the technical issues with this particular airline. it had been looked at two days earlier. the plane was only built in 2016 and delivered straight to the airline. to your question earlier, michael, about whether or not this plane should have been taking off at that time. i think is a pretty valid one. the airline had said initially if there was a hint of danger,

they would not have taken off. the plane is where it was supposed to be. within the corridor where aircraft had taken off. i think there is a valid question here as to -- for the airline why any civil yaian pla were taking offer with heightened tensions between the u.s. and iran. >> absolutely. they could have been expegging a u.s. response and been on a hair trigger. that does lawsuit absolutely beg the question whether or not procedures have to change about aircraft flying at all. scott mcclain. we are check in with you as we continue our coverage. now, we will join denver, colorado, adam, a former accident investigators and author of at air safety investigators." good to have you here, allen.

speak to that. we are showing a copy of your book there. it would have been a heightened level of tension. the missiles from iran into iraq. the iranians would have been probably on high alert for a u.s. response. what are your thoughts? >> absolutely. of course we do know that roughly 80% of the accidents are due to human error. and it's probably a little higher. i was assigned to investigate the u.s. air force, fighter planes and shot down two u.s. army blackhawk helicopters. that was in '94. we see it over and over again. this is a kmoun occasion problem. 's a type of training called poor resource management that airline pilots get. and i was working for the air

force and i was getting that traini training also. and theeri ergonimics of the season. >> we might go on what it was. it was a mobile system. a unit operating independently. it has a short range radar that plane would have fallen into. are you shocked that civilian aircraft were flying at all given the state of things? >> obviously, there was a breakdown in communication between the civil aviation authorities. that is reminiscent of the 1988

shootdown of the iranian airliner and they said what is an airliner e doing in a military zone. and the iranian authoritieses would have keenly aware of not allowing airliners to fly in war zones. of course it was a war zone that time. even though the americans did not the have had not the responded. the iranian authority should have issued a more directive if you will between the civil aviation authors, the airlines and the controllers and the radar operators of the military system. i'm sure they were anticipating an american retaliation. and when i lecture the young men and women, i sometimes tell them e the most dangerous things are adrenaline and testosterone. you don't have a lot of time

when a blip is moving across the screen. but it tragediically and thos 1 lives -- 174 lives i guess. but it happened before and we haven't learned the lessons as a sew e sighty. >> an as we have been covers it the last couple hour hours and i mentioned it a couple times in. you google military shootdowns of scivilian aircraft. it has happened a lot. what lessons should be learned in this particular situation? does it relate to the dec deconfliction of military -- >> i guess that would be the first lesson. a better communications, and the poor resource management

training i mentioned seems to drastically decrease due to human error. that is something that all militaries around the world and the people that control things like missiles or nuclear weapons need that training. we have seen it over and over again where somebody in the control room realizes this may be a commercial airliner. it was a junior officer that was trying to convince the captain of the missile cruise they are would be a commercial airliner and the captain unfortunately didn't listen to him. the captains now receive the crm type of training. often times, the junior controlmen look at details about altitude and things the decision maker may not realize. >> interesting. all

alan deal, appreciate your time there. texas. we will take a break and continue to follow the breaking news. do stay with us. ♪ ♪ because the tempur-breeze™makes stransfers heat. away from your body. so you feel cool, night after night. and now tempur-pedic is ranked number one by jd power in customer satisfaction with retail mattresses.

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so celebrity makeup artist sir john is here to help. thinning or sparse brows are very common and that's why l'oreal paris created unbelieva-brow longwear brow gel. it's easy to fill in and thicken your brows. unbelieva-brow in your favorite stores. welcome back. we continue coverage out of iran y the president has admitted hiss country unintentionally shotdown a passenger plane on wednesday.

all 176 people on board were killed. the president blaming human error, offering deep regrets. american western powers previously said their intelligence suggested a missile brought down the plane. iran initially denying it saying it with it mechanical issues. and the jet was heading to kiev in ukraine when it crashed shortly after take off. joining me from washington, cedric leighton. good to have you back again. so many failures here on the iranian side. why a civilian air craft was flying in a nervous military area after the iranians had fired off the missiles in iraq.

they probably were expecting a u.s. response. >> you're absolutely right. and what would have gone we better. when there is a situation that errors when there is fighting and a possibility of missile launches, there a notice to airmen that is issued to flight crews and there doesn't seem to be any record of anything lake that issued by anyone in the international aviation arena. so it does beg the question why that wasn't done. it's pretty clear, you know, to us observers here ring side that there is so much that would have necessitated a notice that would have been actually quite useful for civilian air crews in this is situation. >> interesting, what the crew would have known.

it's an sa-15 russian built bat theory. normally transportable, mobile. and older system with short range radar, meaning the crews operating it may not the have had a lot of time to react once the aircraft came in their sphere. but a civil ynl aircraft is puts out a transponder. and they are turning it off. they have not the known that. >> they should have absolutely known that. anyone who is trained to operate radars knows about transponders and i remember being trained on the use and how they -- what kind of signals they emanate. so all commercial aircraft, like you point out, they emit a transponder signal that identifies the aircraft,

civilian, a friendly aircraft or a hostile based on the radar picture and the transponder, or lack of transponder and that's the kind of thing that should have been a very clear indicator to the crew this was a civilian aircraft. there is almost no way that a civilian aircraft of this type leaving teheran would have failed to use a transponder. you know, there are certain situations where that happens but barring a technical mistake where there is a mechanical malfunction, that is not the usual procedure and they should have been able toll see that transponder and make the accurate the decision that that was a civilian aircraft and not a military target. >> you know, it kors to me that the iranian -- the revolutionary guard and the liking and the

approxima proxies are well versed in had conventional war fair but they haven't had a lot of prague in the years. and training is obviously an issue and you have a war footing atmosphere there. i mean, the question of whether civilian aircraft should even have been flying. >> yeah, that i think is a very fundamental question e in this particular case. it kind of goes to the business about the notice to airmen in a hostile environment like this. civilian air craft really have no business in a place where there is a possible testify of air strikes or missiles lobbed from are one side to the other. and that clearly was the case once qassim soleimain was killed and no effort was made on the

iran y iranian side and the iraqi side and that is a question for all the international traffic thoughts authorities to look at. it's important in a general sense to maintain good order and discipline in a civil aviation industry. >> all right, cedric, always good to have you on. thank you. >> you bet. any time. >> all right, more ahead. do stay with us here on cnn as we continue our coverage of breaking news out of iran. we'll be right back. when you have pain...

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we continue to follow the breaking news out of teheran where iran admits and ukrainian passenger plane was shot down by its forces. the iranian president says he deeply regrets a disastrous mistake and is vowing to

prosecute those in who downed the plane. the crash killed all 176 people on the flight. and iran not taking all the responsibility. the country's armed forces blaming increased radar activity and fear of u.s. aggression for the mistake. and sam kyly is joining me from d baghdad to talk about this. and a couple riders attached by the foreign minister. what do you think it will do for region tensions? does it add to them or alleviate them? >> i think arguably it will do neither in terms of the local regional tensions if we look at what is going on in iraq. the iranians said the missile strikes against a u.s.-dominated

bases here in iraq was the end of matter as far as they were concerned in terms of the short term response to the killing of qassim soleimain. and the militias say it's no way over and they are going to continue their pressure for the u.s. forces to withdraw from eric and that could turn into military pressure inless they get a signal from the united states that they're going to move out. tragedy does indicate the extent of the ability of the united states to monitor missile launches inside iran. they were able to pick up the missile launches against their own bases. and they say they were able to also monitor the missile launches that brought down this aircraft. it was that pressure really that is brought to bear via the countries where the most -- the

victims came that is essentially force the eye rain wiiranians t. this is a dangerous neighborhood. it was made a dangerous neighborhood. and then the iranian retaliation for that. and you are reporting, there are questions as to why the aircraft were flying at this time. but whenever regional tensions flare up, they fly around these countries or in many ways, you would be paralyzing civilian traffic if there was escalation when people cancel flights. more widely, i don't think i it will make too much difference but it's a deeply embarrassing and tragic moment. >> you touched on something and it is important. because this is your patch, where you are right now. i mean, you got a situation

where the iraqi government is saying to the u.s., listen, prepare a mechanism to get out. we are getting pressure from parliament saying we want the u.s. out. and the secretary of state mike pompeo says we have no plans to leave. where does that leave things? that can get untidy quickly. >> it could get untidy quickly. there are many here on the ground that think it the may happen quickly. it raises the specter of the anti-occupation attacks that went on just a few years ago, very, very heavily driven by the militia, killing large numbers of troops with the shape charges with iranian help. the same time, of course, the trump administration has committed itself to withdrawing

from the middle east, particularly arack. the military forces are here to help against the so-called islamic state. and in his conversation, he asked for the mechanism to be discussed. he said that is not an accurate description of the conversation they had. but nonetheless, i think once the tensions are dialed down, i think the americans may well be looking for the opportunity to discuss a dignified withdraw. they certainly don't want to look like they have been chased out by a sheer militia. meanwhile, they are threatening violence unless the withdraw happens quickly. so there's a window here and interesting to see who steps through the win doe first. the americans saying, if you don't want us there, we will withdraw. or the iranians who say -- and

there are a lot of iranians here who don't want the americans to go too soon. there is still a islamic state here and there is a danger they can collapse once again. >> yeah, and a withdraw might have unintended consequences. sam there in baghdad. appreciate the. do stay with us. we will have more after the break. the breaking news out of iran. we will be right back. it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. align, press and unzip. tide pods. keep them up. keep them closed. keep them safe. little things can be a big deal. psoriasis,

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>>. >> quel somewhere more on breaking news in a moment. and southern australia, firefighters are getting a bit of a break after a difficult night fighting the deadly bush fires. it really is apocalyptic down

under. the conditions are expected to last a week but there is a very long way to go. the peak of the fire season is yet to the come. p firefighters in south wales battling 136 separate fires and authorities are warning citizens the risks are far from over. activis activists have argued climate change has worsened the bush fires. it's hard to deny that. ian joining us now from sydney. thanks for doing so. how much of an impa pact has climate changed in the fire emergency in there seems to be some deflection on that score. in particular from some politicians. >> well, good evening. michael, nice to talk to you. certainly the debate had in in country is trying to divert attention from the real impact

of climate change. there is no real question if you follow the signs that climate change has exacerbated the problem we've got but they are not unexpected if you follow from the sicientists have told s for at least a decade. and what you are seeing in australia is the early indications of the concerns the scientists have had many years now. that the tipping points until the global climate system, where you suddenly get a change from one stable sate to a one, which is much less stable and -- what we are not seeing here in australia is an early indication those things are now starting to happen. and it really means it's a wake-up call not just to

australia but the rest of the world. we have to take far more serious action than we have been so far. >> it's a global issue. and that is true. but australia is really a case in point. i mean, there was an article you wrote in the guardian newspaper and you said this quote. you said predatory delay is used to prolong the life of our high carbon economy for short term financial game ander respectful to damage to society. policies view climate change as a nonproblem. that is very true and depressing. >> yeah, it is. but that is exactly what has been happening with the political and corporate leaders trying to preserve the coal industry. and natural gas.

the fundamental reason, they don't really believe that climate change is that series. we had major impacts. and we had a sequence of events over the last decade and the problem is getting worse and worse. but the fact is, we're now seeing something completely out of the box. and we need to see a fundamental change in the approach that leadership in trags uses to address the problem. >> that's a problem. it's not hanning. the country in many ways is dependant on call and you have scott morrison whose election was founded in many ways by the coal industry and their locations and fundings. he's a massive defender of the coal industry and coal experts. how have the fires changed the discussion on climate change? something the government in

australia have skirted or played down since before it was elected. >> what is happening, the denialist approach to this is continuing. and what we are now seeing is is acceptance in theory by the prime minister and others that yeah, climate change is serious. but ha is only resecently, the last couple weeks. the symptoms of the problem, in other words, the damage. what should we have dheen we didn't do, like earlier clearing or burning of forests to reduce the fuel load. and so on. i mean, the attention is starting to accept that this is a problem. don't away but it's still focused -- it doesn't really want to get into the cause. that is what has to change. unless we start talking about

the cause n australia it will be disastrous as wells a elsewhere. we are the driest and hottest continent and it's going to hit us more than other people. so -- >> and the thing is, in australia, i want to get this in too. i mean, in australia, the head in sand aspect on the political side is very dangerous. yeah, there is massive economic costs to australia because it's dependants on export. and are you concerned that the issue of climate change could be shunned to the side or if it's not addressed in the manner it needs to be. >> yeah, exactly. we had inquiry after inquiry after inquiry for the last decade all continuing on the main issue, climate change. we know what to do. we have great opportunities in this country to replace our coal

and fossil fuel industries to alternatives and the government has refused to encourage. we currently -- the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $42 billion a year. if you take my advice on this. a massive amount. it's more than we actually spend on defense. now, the political debate is around the fact we shouldn't be subsidizinging all the renewable energies but it pails in -- the significance of what we are propping up. we don't effectively put a cost on the use of fossil fuels. what we are now seeing is the cost and the damage caused by bush fires, complete disruption,

the disappearance of livelihoods and lives. that is the cost we're ignores. that is what carbon pricinging is supposed to be all about. and the governments don want to >> the wake up call may be a harsh one. ian dun lop with the breakthrough advisory board in sydney. i appreciate you coming on to discuss what is an important issue, not just for australia but for the rest of the world. >> thank you. >> cheers. up next, more of our special breaking news coverage out of iran. do stay with us. we will be right back.

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welcome back everyone. the iranian president apologizing for what he calls a disasterous mistake and vows to prosecute those responsible for downing the ukrainian plane.

missiles fired unintentionally brought down a ukrainian passenger plane killing all 176 people on board. iran blaming increased radar activity and fear of u.s. aggression for the mistake but also admitting culpibility. it came as iran launched a barrage of missiles at iraq where u.s. troops are stationed, pointing the finger at u.s. while also saying human error at the time of the crisis led to the disaster. he offered apologies and condolences to the victims' families and also blaming u.s. adventurism at the same time. the 176 people killed came from all over the world. thanks for spending part of your

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this is cnn breaking news. hello everyone, i am michael holmes and this is cnn newsroom. we are following breaking news out of tehran where iranian leaders now admit the ukrainian airplane shot down was shot down by them unintentionally. the plane crashed just a few hours after iran launched missiles at military bases in iraq housing u.s. troops. all 176 people on board the