Master Chief
Trusted Member
This is the wreckage from a breakup, which basically belongs to the category of an aircraft exploding in mid-air and crashing as a result. If it were blown into this state using explosives on purpose, it would take at least one ton of explosives, and they'd need to be placed in the right spots.
View attachment 190314
Who said it was only bombed with explosives? I thought it was struck from the air as well after the personnel were extracted.
Personally, the US account is entirely believable.
I would imagine the C130 became stuck or unable to safely take off ("stuck" in the context of this doesn't necessarily mean it was sinking in mud!). I would further speculate that 2 helis became stricken due to small arms ground fire and so were rolled into the explosion box manually or with movement aids (presumably they come prepared for such circumstances in CSAR missions).
Then with all assets together, they place their bombs, evacuate on other aircraft, and follow up with an airstrike. Just my speculation, but I do believe that Iranian ground fire was limited to some small arms fire in this case.










