Exactly how the Ukrainians shot down the four-engine A-50 with its top-mounted radar is unclear, but analyst Tom Cooper—who has written many books about Soviet and Russian warplanes—has a theory.
Ukrainian radar and missile crews lured the Russian crews into a trap.
If Cooper’s theory is correct, the Ukrainians set the trap on Saturday, when Ukrainian air force jets—presumably Su-24's —struck Russian air force installations across the Russian-occupied #Crimea