Do Stingers, or any other MANPAD have the range to reach up to 31,000 feet?
No.
General Dynamics / Raytheon FIM-92 Stinger Man-Portable, Air Defense Missile System
12,500ft max altitude (second paragraph above "Stinger Uses")
I know Stinger FIM92 does high twenties
Not any known
The civil aviation flight altitude restrictions set over the region before this incident were 25,000 feet
Nope. Not even close. Max altitude for our Stingers around 15,000’ and for the most “advanced” is about 18,000’
No, they operate to about 15k. Only major complex weapon sysrems can hit an airliner at altitude. So it’s highly unlikely at this juncture that a missle brought the plane down. A bomb onboard perhaps, but no small shoulder fired weapon is taking out an airliner at altitude.
If terrorists did get their hands on more complex stuff I would put equal odds they got it from Russia directly through seleratist rebels they have been arming and training ala the Malasian Airlines shoot down.
NO!!!!!!!
15,000 nominal
18,000 MAX
It was bomb on board and why do we believe this video is the flight in question?
No. Both have about the same range
The missile's maximum range is 4800 meters, which is comparable to the Igla, but it has a much shorter minimum range (200 meters versus the Igla's 800 meter minimum). It is one of the fastest MANPADS missiles, traveling at Mach 2.2. 7. Proliferation.