Explosion likely brought down aircraft purportedly carrying Wagner boss, flight data and video analysis suggest

CNN — There is a puff of white and then a plane can be seen falling, a trail of smoke or vapor stretching behind it, descending rapidly against a bright blue sky. It is this data that provides some insight into the final moments of the flight,” Flightradar24 said in the report, noting that the data showed a “dramatic descent.” The flight’s final fluctuations in altitude are highly unusual, one aviation expert told CNN, and suggest that the pilot was trying to stabilize the plane before the crash. Markus Schiller, a Europe-based missile expert who has worked on analysis for NATO and the European Union, told CNN that the available videos and the fact that multiple debris fields were spread over a wide area point to a “forceful explosion.” “The plane’s tail and wing can only have been separated from the plane by an explosion. Robert Schmucker, a rocket expert who advises NATO and the United Nations, said that while the crash requires a thorough, on-the-ground investigation and analysis of the black box, or flight data recorders, to determine the cause, available evidence indicates that the plane was likely downed by an explosion rather than mechanical failure. Then a plume of smoke emerged, and the plane began to descend, to dive.” Given the safety record of the modern Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft, Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, an aviation expert, and professor at the University of North Dakota, said that there were only three realistic options for how the crash occurred: an explosive device on the plane, a missile, or an in-air collision.