“When the data is lost at 8,000 feet suddenly that implies something catastrophic happened to that airplane and they could no longer communicate with the ground control. There is no indication at this stage of what may have caused a catastrophic incident on board the plane, and all options are still on the table.” A Kiev-bound Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 plane crashed after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board. Here’s the latest from CNN.

+ ABC on the timing of the crash, coming just hours after Iran launched its missiles: “There was no immediate sign the two events were linked and some Iranian officials blamed the crash on a technical fault on the plane. But the cause of the disaster remained unclear, with Ukrainian authorities seeming unsure of the initial Iranian explanations on Wednesday.”

+ Jeff Wise in NY Mag: “To be sure, there are ways other than a missile strike that a passenger plane can come to catastrophic grief soon after takeoff. In the case of Flight 752, however, none seem to fit very well.”