Would a launch from a mountain at 4,000 feet increase the service altitude of a Stinger?
Wiki says the range of a Stinger in 1987 was 26,000 feet. Were the Benghazi variants or the ones manufactured by Roketsan in Turkey capable of just a bit more altitude?
There are not too many things that bring a plane down cruising at 35,000 feet. You are looking for a bomb, a missle, or a catastrophic engine explosion.
That aircraft was definitely over bandit country.
Stingers can be air launched, greatly extending their range.
From their manufacturer:
“Raytheon, which anticipates additional business for helicopter-launched Stingers in the Middle East and Southwest Asia,”
Flightradar24.com tracked the plane to 30k+ feet before it came down.
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/ei-etj/#7d986d3
Press play button to see.
Huge plane crashes happen roughly never, and happening to a major world “macher” (power) means Look For Terrorism. All of this I knew the moment I heard the story begin on the radio news, before I heard over which country it happened. Once I heard that, I suspected this wasn’t an accident.