On Wednesday, January 7, only a week into 2020, a Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane took off from Tehran. Minutes later, the plane crashed and all 176 passengers and crew died. On board were 82 Iranian citizens and 63 Canadians, as well as citizens from Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK.
The crash occurred shortly after the US killed Qasem Soleimani in a targeted airstrike and only hours after Iran retaliated by firing missiles at two US military bases in Iraq.