Ahmadinejad has an Oopsie!

In a giant sendoff for Thug in Chief Ahmadinejad, before he left for the UN meeting in New York, Iran held a giant military review parade, much like dictatorial thugs have had for as long as there have been armies. Long lines of Shehab-3 missiles and other military hardware rumbled past the podium. The parade was to end with a flyby of Iran's newest shiny bit of kit, a homegrown AWACS aircraft using an Iranian designed and built (supposedly) radar installed in a converted Russian Ilyushin 76MD, formerly of Saddam Hussein's air force, that was turned over to Iran in 1991 in order to keep it out of Coalition forces hands. Iran contracted with Russian technicians to install an upgraded radar in the aircraft (which is why I question whether the radar was actually Iranian in origin. If it was truly Iranian, why did they need Russian technicians to install it?). The aircraft, the only one of it's kind, dubbed "Simorgh", which is a flying creature of Iranian fable, was being escorted by two F-5E fighters when one of the fighters and the Ilyushin had a mid-air collision in front of the podium. The fiery remains of the Ilyushin crashed into the mausoleum where former Ayatollah Khomeini is interred. The crew of both aircraft perished in the crash.

(Image copyright M. Razzazan, Airliners.net)

H/T DEBKAfile