six20aus raised a VERY valid point that it could not have been hit by conventional AA fire as it was 35 km off the coast. I hadnt read how far offshore it was, So that rules that out.
That leaves being struck by an incoming missile by accident, ( which would have been extremely unlucky ) struck by Syrian AA missile,(unlikely in my opinion as the operators would have been locking on radar images, and the larger blob of the plane should have alerted them ), or copping a Sidewinder from an Israeli F16..........
