MALAYSIAN AIRLINER 'SHOT DOWN' OVER UKRAINE

http://news.sky.com/story/1302864/malaysian-plane-shot-down-with-295-on-board

A Malaysian passenger plane with 295 people on board has been shot down as it flew above eastern Ukraine, according to aviation sources.

The plane, which is believed to have been flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was travelling at an altitude of 10km (6.2 miles) when it was shot down, Russia's Inferfax reported.

It was brought down by a ground-to-air missile, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry quoted by the news agency said.

A spokesman for Malaysian Airlines confirmed "an incident" involving one of its flights and is expected to release a statement shortly.

The aircraft involved is believed to be a Boeing 777 with flight number MH17, which departed from Amsterdam at 12.14am local time.

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Moscow, said media reports suggest the plane came down in an area where there has been recent heavy fighting amid continuing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

More follows...


OMG.

Residents have reported about finding debris from a plane, which they say could belong to the Malaysian Boeing. They also said no bodies have been seen, RIA Novosti reports

I'm sorry, this is too much wierd for me. That's a 'sister' of the missing plane that's gone down in the middle of a warzone.

With the well-publicized tensions in the Ukraine, whose bright idea was it to fly a commercial jet over the area?   And especially over the area in the tension-ridden east? the crash site is over 400 miles from Kiev. Madness, utter madness!   LL

I am sitting here shaking my head, LL. And I hope no conclusions are jumped to. According to some reports:

From Reuters:
Malaysian plane shot down by Buk missile: Ukrainian adviser to Ifax

A
Malaysian passenger plane that came down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday
was shot down by a Buk ground-to-air missile, a Ukrainian interior
ministry official, quoted by Interfax news agency said.

The official, Anton Gerashchenko, said all the 280 passengers and 15 crew had been killed.

Which is a Russian weapon. But look who else has them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buk_missile_system

Ukraine


Calm heads needed here till more is known. And as you say, what the HELL was it doing there? Why is Malaysian Airlines so careless?

First suggestions it was Kiev - from:

http://news.sky.com/story/1302864/malaysian-plane-shot-down-with-295-on-board

Data from Flightradar24 suggests the plane had just passed the city of Kremenchuk, around 300km (186 miles) from the Russian border, when it disappeared.

Several videos apparently filmed in the area, none of which Sky News has been able to independently verify, show plumes of thick, black smoke rising high into the air.

A Reuters correspondent at the scene said he could see the wreckage of a burning aircraft and bodies on the ground.

Aviation expert Major Charles Hayman told Sky News: "It's highly likely this aircraft was flying along a fault line between Russian and Ukrainian defences.

"It’s possible the Ukrainians flapped a bit, thought it was hostile and shot it down.

"Perhaps it was confusion at the Ukrainian air defence centre.

"It looks like someone failed to recognise this was a civilian plane and shot it down."

A spokesman for Boeing said it was aware of reports of MH17's disappearance, while a Foreign Office official added: "We're urgently working to establish what has happened."

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Poor people. What a tragedy.    

I am astounded!

it was 33,000 feet in the sky for god's sake. Sounds like it was a missile fired by sepratists, armed by the RUSSIANS

I don't think anyone should rush to judgement over this, Rhodes, as far as is known, the rebels don't have anything that can hit that high, and it was well inside Ukrainian airspace.

The Kiev government does have those missiles, however.

The Ukrainian Air force accidentally shot down a Russian airliner years ago over the Black Sea. Russia shot down a Korean airliner. An Italian airliner was shot down when it got caught in a dogfight between the Italian air force and Gaddafi's. The US navy shot down an Iranian airbus supposedly mistaking it for a jet fighter.

It's happened before, and it's a tragedy every single time. This one is particularly avoidable, whoever did it. I haven't the words for the idiocy of flying through a war zone, especially when one of your planes has been missing for months.

Katie Stallard says a separatist was bragging that they had shot down a Ukranian plane earlier today, but that has now disappeared from Russian media.

That was a different plane, Rhodes, it was a fighter jet on some kind of offensive, and the story HASN'T disappeared from Russian media, I am looking at it now:

http://rt.com/news/173604-ukraine-jet-downed-absurd/

Solid information is hard to come by, but it would be best not to jump to any conclusions.....

http://news.sky.com/story/1302883/live-updates-passenger-jet-crashes-in-ukraine

Alexander Borodai speaking to Russia's state-run Rossiya 24 TV broadcaster: "Apparently, it's a passenger airliner indeed, truly shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force."

http://rt.com/news/173616-malaysian-crash-ukraine-border/


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has not ruled out that a Malaysian plane has been shot down.

“We don’t rule out that this plane was shot down and stress that Ukrainian forces did not fulfill any actions targeting in the air,” Poroshenko said. He added that an investigation commission will be launched.

At the same time, Anton Geraschenko said on his Facebook page that the plane was targeted from the air defense missile complex "Buk".

RIA Novosti is citing its source who said that Kiev indeed deployed “Buk” in the Donetsk region.

“According to the system of objective control, "Buk" division of the armed forces of Ukraine was relocated to Donetsk region on Wednesday. Now in Kharkov another division is being prepared,” the source said.

LifeNews channel also cites witnesses who claimed to see Ukrainian Air Forces jet following the crashed Boeing-777.

Malasyian Airlines colours are the same as Russian colours. Stories are starting to circulate that the pilot said something to Russian ATC before it was hit, that it was being followed by Ukrainian jets, and some trigger-happy conscript launched a missile.

No hard facts, just stories, hypotheses and rumors. Here come the conspiracy geeks. LL

I don't think it's a conspiracy, LL, I think it's a fkc-up. A horrible, lethal fkc-up, but that's it. It's no secret that the Ukrainian Air Force is less than professional - it's only a few days since they bombed a Russian village instead of one of the same name in Ukraine. Not that they should have been bombing unarmed villages in the first place....

Kiev has missiles capable of reaching this height, the rebels don't, as far as anyone knows. I find it quite possible that some idiot thought he was Top Gun, saw the 'Russian' colours, told the ground it was a Russian transport and the missile was launched?

Time will tell. None of this helps anyone, though I see other airlines are finally avoiding that area. I'm horrified that they weren't anyway.

http://news.sky.com/story/1302883/live-updates-passenger-jet-crashes-in-ukraine

A flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was reportedly shot down in Ukraine is thought to have been flying in an unsafe zone.
by Alan McGuinness 4:28 PM

Interfax news agency: Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine say they have found a black box flight recorder from the Malaysia Airlines plane.by Alan McGuinness 4:25 PM

Obama: Officials are investigating whether US citizens were on board.by Alan McGuinness 4:24 PM

Barack Obama: The crash is a "terrible tragedy", the US will offer any assistance necessary to find out what happened and why.

It's believed there are a number of UK and US citizens on board, and many Dutch nationals.

a terrible tragedy indeed.

Sometimes the world seems to be one horror story after another.

Black box from downed Malaysian Airlines jet is sent to MOSCOW by pro-Russian separatists amid fears of a cover-up

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2696631/Pro-Russian-separatists-thought-shot-MH17-claim-flights-black-box-say-sent-Moscow.html#ixzz37nNEqcq5
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Cover up?  I wonder by whom?   LL

Also -

on June 29, Russia's official news agency, ITAR-TASS, reported that pro-Russian separatists took a Buk system under their control. The report does not specify whether or not this was theft from the Russian or Ukrainian militaries, only that the rebels had seized control of the weapons system. An AP report, dated yesterday, noted that, “A launcher similar to the Buk missile system was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne, which is held by pro-Russia rebels, earlier Thursday.”

MH17: Pro-Russian separatist boasts online about shooting down plane

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11295584

Ukrainian separatists suspected of bringing down Malaysia Airlines flight on Russian border
Fighters from Donetsk People's Republic boasted of capturing Buk surface-to-air missiles from Ukrainian military

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10974821/Ukrainian-separatists-suspected-of-bringing-down-Malaysia-Airlines-flight-on-Russian-border.html