Military experts have said the plane was too high — at 15,000 feet — to be reached by [an anti-tank missile], the Sun newspaper reported Tuesday.
A senior ministry source told the paper: “It is clear the C-130 exploded in midair and shattered into thousands of pieces.
“This is almost exactly what happened when the Pan Am jet was blown up over Lockerbie (Scotland) by an on-board bomb.
“The most obvious explanation for this is that the disaster was caused by a midair explosion.”
“It was election day throughout Iraq, and to the insurgents, downing a big plane like an RAF Hercules would be a huge coup.”
The Royal Air Force Hercules was flying from Baghdad to Balad when it came down 25 miles north of the capital.