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 Interfax reported.
The aircraft, reportedly a Boeing 777, was brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry quoted by the news agency said.
A spokesman for Malaysian Airlines confirmed it had lost contact with flight MH17, which departed from Amsterdam at 12.14am local time.
The flight disappeared from radar as it flew over Ukrainian airspace, he said.
Sky’s Katie Stallard, in Moscow, said media reports suggest the plane came down in the Donetsk region, where there has been recent heavy fighting amid continuing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
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Ukraine accuses Russia of shooting down air force jet.
An Air Force fighter jet has been shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from a Russian plane, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Security Council said Thursday.
Andrei Lysenko also said Ukrainian troops had been fired upon by missiles from a village just inside Russia.
Officials in Kiev have recently accused Russia’s armed forces of being directly implicated in attacks on Ukrainian troops battling an insurgency near the border.
Lysenko said in a televised briefing that the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet that was hit on Wednesday evening was forced to bail out after his jet was shot down. He provided no further details.
Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets.
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Yikes — if this is true (48 hour rule)
Donetsk separatist boss Strelkov, Kremlin's proxy in war, says he ordered shootdown thinking plane was Ukrainian pic.twitter.com/uaWKVlsA7q
— Strobe Talbott (@strobetalbott) July 17, 2014
If rpt if Russians shot down Malaysian plane, it will be grotesque deja vu of Soviets' destruction of Korean Airlines 007 31 yrs ago, Sept83
— Strobe Talbott (@strobetalbott) July 17, 2014
Hopefully this isn’t our Franz Ferdinand. Conditions are ripe.
good think we have obama leading us through these tumultuous times.
Gadfly huh? Or?
Exactly who launched is the question and may be hard to determine since both sides use the BUK systems. A serial numbered piece of the missile would help but with Russia’s history of deception operations this could be one done to damage the Ukraine at a time when they appear to be winning.
By the way, here’s some free advice….change the name of the airline…quickly and quietly.
An early question geoffb, supposing an intentionally targeted and not accidental anti-air missile launch, might be, to what purpose would befowling air carrier insurance arrangements aide either side in the conflict? Why invite air carriers, in other words, to abandon either or both Russia and Ukraine as possible air corridors or destinations? Kinda stupid, either way, seems to me — like cutting off the nose to spite the face stupid.
Did Shep just blame the pilot of the plane for getting shot down?
Why, yes he did, gahrie.
Separatists are blaming the Ukrainians for shooting down the plane. Malaysia hasn’t said the plane was shot down, it is calling it an accident.
Hmm.
Immediate reactions. And other air actions.
h/t ace for the above.
Greetings:
“Has anybody here seem my old friend Catherine ?
Can you tell me where she’s gone ?”
I don’t suppose that this will be a sufficient basis for the resurfacing of Catherine Ashton, the EU’s Foreign Ministress, who did so much to get the Ukrainian situation a-roiling before she handed off that tar baby to President Obama, another paragon of geopolitical competence, and went off somewhere to work on her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
When the Ukraine first began its decent into EU lust, I saw an interview on France24 with a Britosh historian by the name of Ben Judah. He described the situation as “The banks versus the tanks.” which I found much more profound than flippant. Well, yesterday the banks (via President Obama) played another sanctions card. Today, the tanks seem to have responded.
From my second link.
third reported incident this week
All these are right now news to me, but are they news to commercial air-carriers, who after all, are in the business of keeping track of such dangers to their passengers and corporations, one would think? So . . .
Yikes — I embedded tweet above that makes you feel it is all going to hell really fast there
CNN was hoping for a little less confirmation.
23 US citizens aboard.
geoffb, King Obama I will only care about the death of US citizens if those deaths can be used as an “Oh, look, squirrel” distraction for the American people.
Otherwise, King Obama I will continue to shirk, ignore and party away the rest of his presidency.
Why does ClownDisaster’s voice sound lilting as he speaks his first public words on this catastrophe (not tragedy, as ClownDisaster terms it). Is the man simply a pig?
add Iran Air Flight 655 and you wonder why no one has come up with a solution to this kind of problem (besides “give peace a chance”).
How crazy was Pierre Salinger?
Just heard the Russians have control of the scene of the crash — hence, the evidence. Comfy now?
According to experts on MSNBC*, the plane was shot down by a blast of wind from Howard Stern’s ass.
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/489855381246836738
* – by which I mean the chick that has a stripper’s stage name and vacuum between her ears.
So it looks like my rhetorical question has been answered definitively by ClownDisaster himself: simply a pig, with finality.
Though it’s not like we didn’t already know.
The FAA had a NOTAM up about this area since April. Strictly speaking it is for American carriers, but I’m sure there are similar notices by the other relevant authorities.
Oh look, whaddaya know? A man who still knows how to display his big brass jewels to the worldm rather than kowtow to a pig.
A pig, jerkweeds. A pig, assholes. A pig, morons. A pig, dimwits. A pig, you ignorant scum. A pig, you sleeping fools. A pig, chumps. A pig, jackasses. What have you done? Suffer for it: join him in his pig-sty.
Smoke, mirrors, and cover stories, SOP, home and abroad.