Passenger Plane Reportedly Shot Down in Ukraine

[grandy]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/17/malaysia-airlines-jet-reportedly-crashes-in-ukraine/

A Malaysian Airlines passenger plane with 295 aboard was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in Ukraine near the Russian border, according to multiple reports.

The airline, which saw one of its fleet disappear over the Indian Ocean in March, confirmed only that "an incident" had occurred involving the Boeing 777, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.

?Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam," read a tweet from the airline. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow,? read a tweet from Malaysia Airlines? account.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he has directed the country?s Ministry of Defense to investigate the incident, according to a message on his Twitter account. He said he could not confirm that the plane was shot down.

But multiple reports, including from Russia's Interfax news agency, said the plane was shot down at cruising altitude. Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister told The Associated press that the plane, carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew people onboard, was shot down.

Gerashenko says on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit Thursday by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday.

The adviser also told Russian news agency Interfax that all onboard have been killed.

The border area where the plane apparently went down, near the city of Kremenchuk, has been embroiled in the larger dispute between Ukraine and ethnic Russian separatists. Fighting has intensified in recent months in the region. A day before, according to the Ukrainian government, a Russian military plane shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet in Ukrainian airspace.

Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren said he was aware of reports of the downed passenger jet in Ukraine,but did not have further information.

The Boeing jets are equipped with twin Rolls-Royce Trent engines, typically cruises at 35,000 feet at speeds up to 639 miles per hour.

On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, also a Boeing 777 and carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew on a route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared somewhere over the ocean. It has not been found.​

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/malaysia-airlines-plane-cras_n_5595516.html

http://www.smh.com.au/world/malaysi...ar-russian-border-reports-20140718-zu9p2.html

http://abcnews.go.com/International...act-passenger-plane-ukraine/story?id=24599558

 

[tinselwolverine]

Malaysia Airlines is not having a banner year.

 

[Michchamp]

Malaysia Airlines is not having a banner year.

you can say that again.

 

[Thumb]

Anyone read any of those conspiracy theories about flight 370?

I have seen a few that claim top Chinese scientists were on it and the US downed it with a stealth fighter in order to keep China from completely taking over our technological economy.....seems they missed the boat by about 15 years.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Anyone read any of those conspiracy theories about flight 370?

I have seen a few that claim top Chinese scientists were on it and the US downed it with a stealth fighter in order to keep China from completely taking over our technological economy.....seems they missed the boat by about 15 years.

Why?

Were the Chinese scientists on a boat that the US tried to torpedo, but missed?

 

[Michchamp]

I wonder honestly how any airline could be so negligent as to plot a flight path over a war zone that's seen several planes shot down recently. Just insane...

 

[tinselwolverine]

I wonder honestly how any airline could be so negligent as to plot a flight path over a war zone that's seen several planes shot down recently. Just insane...

They've already proven themselves to be not too swift when it comes to that whole airline safety thing...

 

[Michchamp]

They've already proven themselves to be not too swift when it comes to that whole airline safety thing...

Such blatant disregard for the welfare of others. That's probably where the Malaysian version of spartanhack works.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Apparently there are fuckers looting the baggage out from downed wreckage - some guy on the radio is saying people are tweeting pictures and videos of it.

 

[spockmaster]

Cmon, while it wasnt the brightest idea to fly over the ukraine right now, lets not pretend that its the airline's fault that someone else shot down their passenger airliner. for now, i choose to blame russia for all of this.

 

[byco42]

A lot of airlines were flying over east Ukraine. They are not any more.

 

[Michchamp]

A lot of airlines were flying over east Ukraine. They are not any more.

That's really surprising if true. It's like they don't realize how easy it is to shoot down a civilian airliner in a war zone. If even the well-trained US Navy has done it, what do they expect Russian separatists to do?

From talking to people who've gone back there or wanted to since the fighting started, I've been shocked at the disconnect they seem to display between war and their own safety... They seem to really think there's some invisible barrier that separates military actions from the civilian realm.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Cmon, while it wasnt the brightest idea to fly over the ukraine right now, lets not pretend that its the airline's fault that someone else shot down their passenger airliner. for now, i choose to blame russia for all of this.

I think I heard that whatever the organization is that coordinates international passenger air travel recommended passenger aircraft to stay out of that airspace some time ago.

Meanwhile the two countries are blaming each other it appears.

 

[tinselwolverine]

That's really surprising if true. It's like they don't realize how easy it is to shoot down a civilian airliner in a war zone. If even the well-trained US Navy has done it, what do they expect Russian separatists to do?

From talking to people who've gone back there or wanted to since the fighting started, I've been shocked at the disconnect they seem to display between war and their own safety... They seem to really think there's some invisible barrier that separates military actions from the civilian realm.

I think byco is saying there used to be before the hostilities started.

 

[Michchamp]

according to this article, that was closed airspace already, until October.

article has a lot of other information

 

[Spartanmack]

Why?

Were the Chinese scientists on a boat that the US tried to torpedo, but missed?

aren't you paying attention? The scientists were on a slow boat from China (probably why it was 15 years late). To make it look like an accident, we used a stealth fighter to shoot down a passenger plane that crashed landed into the boat thus killing the scientists.

 

[Michchamp]

according to this article, that was closed airspace already, until October.

article has a lot of other information

sounds like airlines announced they will now avoid flying over that area; some announced they would not fly to Ukraine at all. so apparently it was still okay...

an international flight association said that was NOT restricted airspace.

It's really kinda shocking that the airspace over a warzone that saw a couple military planes downed by SAMs over the last week or two would still be open to civilian airliners. If that's normal, I am seriously freaking out over safety standards.

 

[mhughes0021]

sounds like airlines announced they will now avoid flying over that area; some announced they would not fly to Ukraine at all. so apparently it was still okay...

an international flight association said that was NOT restricted airspace.

It's really kinda shocking that the airspace over a warzone that saw a couple military planes downed by SAMs over the last week or two would still be open to civilian airliners. If that's normal, I am seriously freaking out over safety standards.

not really up to date on military SAM's but I thought it was kinda shocking how easy it is to shoot down a plane flying at 30k+ feet going over 650 mph.

Regardless...someone needs to make putin explode.

 

[mhughes0021]

Cmon, while it wasnt the brightest idea to fly over the ukraine right now, lets not pretend that its the airline's fault that someone else shot down their passenger airliner. for now, i choose to blame russia for all of this.

go to any conservative tv station, website or fb page and they are all blaming Obama lmao. fuckin conservatives....

 

[mhughes0021]

call me heartless....but this is not a tragedy. A tragedy is a plane crashing with 300 + people on board. 300 people willingly boarding a plane that they know is going to fly over a warzone....Is dumb....and the plane exploding is probably closer to what my expectation for the fate of that plane would be than safely landing at its destination. For me this is closer to how I feel when the guy that puts his head in the crocodiles mouth gets his head ripped off. I kinda shrug...and nod...and say yup....that's what I thought would happen.