There simply has to be an easier way of assassinating Prigo than shooting him and the entire group down with an anti aircraft missile.
Assuming they survived the initial strike (most AA missiles are designed to damage the aircraft not kill the occupants) it would have been a suitable punishment to spend your last moments in absolute dread waiting for the inevitable. Assuming they were flying at normal altitudes for the type of aircraft and distance - it would take a couple of minutes of undiluted fear to fall say 30,000 feet. However, perhaps it was a bomb in which case the same thing applies. Whatever the case, I don't think anyone will be too surprised! If you make an enemy of Putin accidents will happen!
In the video I saw of it coming down, it looked as if the pilot may have been trying to regain control of the aircraft - there were changes in attitude to the aircraft that suggested that control surfaces were being moved - too little too late, I think it's fair to say!
@NBAnthony2k
Yep! It was flying at 31000 feet allegedly so it would have taken close to 2 minutes to hit the ground. for part of the time in the video, it was plummeting nose first in a vertical dive but then the pilots (I assume) attempted to regain control of it and it performed some manoeuvres that I think must have been caused by control surface changes but if as now seems likely, the tailplane was blown right off, that would be a pretty tall order!
The most likely scenario seems now to be a bomb placed somewhere in the tailplane area that detached the tailplane making the aircraft uncontrollable.
@Paulos_the_fog the aircraft was falling for a bit from the videos we saw.
Hopefully Prigo got the full terror he caused so many others