alt Hacker NewsThat is the basis for my theory. Not being on
And
Being on but jammed look the same from the perspective of the one shooting them down.
Also, I wonder how resilient it is to the gps spoofing that been going on. If they managed to trick it into identifying itself as a few hundred miles from where it actually was, then very hard to know where it actually is.
All of which is well within Irans technical capabilities.
It is subtantially more likely that this individual plane was tampered with or maintained incorrectly than these signals were anywhere close to being effectively jammed (but still less likely than them not having it on in the first place).
The power levels they are operating at are well into "do NOT stand in front of this" territory