Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile over Ukraine
Just over four months removed from the worst commercial accident in airline history, a second Malaysia Airlines plane went down earlier today near the Ukraine-Russia…
In this image taken from video, Thursday July 17, 2014, showing flames rising from part of the wreckage of a passenger plane carrying 295 people after it was shot down Thursday as it flew over Ukraine, near the village of Hrabove, in eastern Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines tweeted that it lost contact with one of its flights as it was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Ukrainian airspace. (AP Photo / Channel 1)
Just over four months removed from the worst commercial accident in airline history, a second Malaysia Airlines plane went down earlier today near the Ukraine–Russia border. The passenger flightwhich was carrying a total of 295 people on boardappears to have been shot down by an anti-aircraft missile.
Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdams Schiphol airport at 12;14 a.m. local time en route to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. According to Malaysian airlines Twitter account, the airline, … lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace.”
Anton Gerashenkoan advisor and spokesman for Ukraines Interior Ministerhas since ascertained that the plane was flying at a standard altitude of 33,000 feet at the time when it was shot down by a missile fired from a BUK launcher.
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In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The plane, with the tail number 9M-MRD, is the same aircraft that was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, July 17, 2014 when it was shot down near the Ukraine Russia border, according to Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. (AP Photo/JoePriesAviation.net)
As USA Today reports, BUK, also known as SA-17 GRIZZLY, is a mobile anti-aircraft system mounted usually on a tracked vehicle or truck that can simultaneously track and strike six targets flying from different directions and at different altitudes. The launch systems are particularly ubiquitous in Russia and former Soviet-bloc nations in Eastern Europe.
Even more significantly, the crash occurred in the airspace of one of the most tumultuous regions in the recent Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The New York Daily News confirms that, It came down just 20 miles short of entering Russian airspace near the city of Donetsk, in an area where the Ukrainian government has been fighting pro-Russian rebels. Donetsk is a stronghold for the pro-Russian separatists.
The crash comes just a day after a Russian military jet shot down a Ukrainian military plane in an aerial exchange. While no connection between the two crashes has been indicated, the time proximity between both crashes is indicative of the high geopolitical tensions in the region.
As soon as news of the crash broke, Andrei Purgin who serves as deputy prime minister for the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine emphasized the fact that the rebels were not responsible for the flight going down, blaming Ukrainian government troops instead.
Map shows path of Malaysia Airlines flight. (AP Photo)
Newly-elected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has denied the accusations, as well, by stating that the Ukrainian military played no role in the planes crash either. As of now, rescue crews have reported finding hundreds of bodies and debris within a nine-mile radius of the crash.
The far-ranging radius is typically indicative of a plane that has gone down at altitude as opposed to a plane that crashes upon contact with a ground or water surface.
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So shortly removed from the incident, the facts remain murky, catalysts uncertain, and theories unconfirmed. And yet, the location of the crash and extended debris field do lend some weight to the allegations of a missile-induced crash.
