Malaysian passenger plane crashes in Ukraine near Russian border: Ifax

[The Seeker]

KIEV, July 17 (Reuters) - A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border on Thursday, the Interfax news agency cited an aviation industry source as saying.


The Boeing plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, it said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

The Interfax report said the plane came down 50 km (20 miles) short of entering Russian airspace. It "began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory," the unnamed source said.

The plane appeared to have come down in a region of military action where Ukrainian government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.

A separate unnamed source in the Ukrainian security apparatus, quoted by Interfax, said the plane disappeared from radar at a height of 10,000 metres after which it came down near the town of Shakhtyorsk.

it appears it was shot down...

•280 passengers, 15 crew died on plane, says Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser quoted by Interfax.
•Malaysian plane was brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile - Interior Ministry adviser, quoted by Interfax

jeez...


seeker

[LSWONE]

You just beat me to it!
This is crazy!!

LSWONE.

[burntheships]

This was flight number MH17

Bizzare...

[The Seeker]

http://news.msn.com/world/malaysian-passenger-plane-crashes-in-ukraine-near-russian-border-ifax

GRABOVO, Ukraine, July 17 (Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian militants on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard, a Ukrainian interior ministry official said.

Raising the stakes in the East-West showdown between Kiev and Moscow, the official blamed "terrorists" using a ground-to-air missile and Ukraine's prime minister called the downing of the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur a "catastrophe".

A Reuters correspondent saw burning wreckage and bodies on the ground at the village of Grabovo, about 40 km (25 miles) from the Russian border in an area where pro-Russian rebels have been active and have claimed to have shot down other aircraft.

The Boeing 777 came down near the city of Donetsk, stronghold of pro-Russian rebels, interior ministry official Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook, adding it was "shot down with a Buk anti-aircraft system by terrorists" - the term the Kiev government uses for militants seeking to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia. The dead were 280 passengers and 15 crew.

does strike me as bizarre that it was a Malaysian air flight...


seeker

[WarToad]

80 children on board.

Ukrainian seperatist leader (Strelkov) is claiming the kill.  He says it was a warplane, though it is quite clear is was a commercial passenger plane.  Idiot.

Air France, Virgin and and Lufthansa have announce they are avoiding Ukrainian airspace.

[Ellirium113]

edit by seeker: vid has been disabled-will have to watch it on you-tube-

[Shasta56]

Disturbing doesn't really even describe it.

Shasta

[Amaterasu]

Yeah, if I had plans to board Malaysian Airlines...I'd be thinking twice.  One plane disappears, another is shot down?  Hmmmm.

[WarToad]

I would divest from any Malasian Air stock, that's for sure.  Ohh... or sell short.  You'ld make money hand over fist as the stock plunges.



I wonder if it's possible to find out if anyone(s) have sold short right before this.  Truely blood money.  Let me hunt around.

[WarToad]

Nope.  Short positions have been low activity lately.

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=MAS:KLS

Stocks fallen 26% though.

[The Seeker]

Wartoad, tis probably not a set up on this one for Malaysia airlines, just a coincidence 

but what are the odds that the one airline of late to totally lose a modern jumbo jet into thin air would have a sister ship shot out of the sky by some hot-headed revolutionary[total dumbass] in a civil war far removed from it's home turf?

strange times we are seeing...


seeker

[spacemaverick]

http://mashable.com/2014/07/17/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-russia-rebel/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfNTdsb2VwamxzcDBlOHVqdiJ9

KIEV, Ukraine — As news broke of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 being downed in eastern Ukraine, the separatist's shadowy commander with a pencil mustache issued a dark warning on social media.

Through his VK.com account, Russia's version of Facebook, the self-proclaimed defense minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Girkin — who goes by the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov — boasted about shooting down a plane.

"We did warn you — do not fly in our sky," he wrote.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn8h0ensUeY&feature=player_embedded&list=PLSKUhDnoJjYm1k2YZaSlA3ku7DKSIm3f5



https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VnuHxAR01Jo

[WarToad]

Sickening.  Killing for the sake of killing, just to prove a pointless point.  Scumbag needs some instant karma least he does it again.

[Ellirium113]

Through his VK.com account, Russia's version of Facebook, the self-proclaimed defense minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Girkin — who goes by the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov — boasted about shooting down a plane.

Interesting...I wonder why if they were claiming responsibility they would do this:

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

Pro-Russian separatists claimed to have found the 'black box' - which records vital flight information - of the downed passenger airliner MH17.

According to Russian news agency Interfax, First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Purgin of the breakaway Donestsk Republic said the box will be transferred to Moscow for examination.

'Of course, we most likely will give them to the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), to Moscow. They are highly qualified experts who will be able to accurately determine the cause of the disaster, even though it is so clear,' he said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2696631/Pro-Russian-separatists-thought-shot-MH17-claim-flights-black-box-say-sent-Moscow.html



And then there's this:
Was Flight MH-17 Diverted Over Restricted Airspace?

.
While there are various questions that have already emerged from what was supposed to be Ukraine's "slam dunk" proof confirming Russian rebel involvement in today's MH-17 tragedy, perhaps one just as gaping question emerges when one looks at what is clearly an outlier flight path in today's final, and tragic, departure of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777.

Perhaps the best visualization of what the issue is, comes from Vagelis Karmiros who has collated all the recent MH-17 flight paths as tracked by Flightaware and shows that while all ten most recent paths pass safely well south of the Donetsk region, and cross the zone above the Sea of Azov, it was only today's tragic flight that passed straight overhead Donetsk

Why is the diversion from the traditional flight path and passage over the highlighted zone a concern? Because as the following map from the WSJ shows this is precisely where the restricted airspace is.

So perhaps before coming to "certain" conclusion about the involvement of this rebel or that, the key questions one should ask before casting blame, is why did the pilot divert from his usual flight plan, why did he fly above restricted airspace, and just what, if any instructions, did Kiev air control give the pilot in the minutes before the tragic explosion?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-17/was-flight-mh-17-diverted-over-restricted-airspace




So in essence it had to have been surface to air missile or air to air missile. If the plane was flying at 33,000 ft. The next question is if the "separatists" had access to a launcher with this capability...WHERE WOULD THEY HAVE GOTTEN THE LAUNCH CODES TO USE IT? I can't see it being a simple fire button.

[WarToad]

There's such a shell and pea game going on, misinformation, outright deception...