It wasn’t crashed, it was landed.
Look at the videos from Iran. Crashed birds don’t survive so intact.
Most likely China or Russia were involved in gaining control of the avionics. There may have been irratic control issues explaining the dent in the leading edge on the left wing, about a 3”-6” dent, maybe 1-2” deep, but quite truthfully that also could have been caused in transporting it while in enemy possession.
Some bloggers already are suggesting the problem was crypto being leaked over to China and the Chinese taking control of the aircraft, which makes more sense than it ‘crashing’.
I see no evidence of it being ‘shot down’.
http://essential-intelligence-network.blogspot.com/2011/12/rq-170-anatomy-of-failed-cybernetic.html
Look at the videos from Iran. Crashed birds don’t survive so intact.
Not true. Including
unmanned aircraft
From the pictures that have been revealed it looks like the RQ-170 bellied in. So there'd be damage to the undersides (like there was on the unmanned F-106 above), which is why the Iranians have the bottom of the vehicle obscured.
Additionally, it looks like both the RQ-170's wings snapped off and were put back together somehow - with the Iranians trying to mask the breakage points with duct tape.