Malaysian Airlines 777 down on Ukraine / Russia Border?

[easytiger123]

It's being reported that it was shot down whilst at cruising altitude, which I guess is 30,000+ feet. Surely we are talking about some serious hardware to hit a plane at that distance travelling at that speed. Suspicion has to be on the Russian military at this early stage. The repercussions of this would be seismic. God bless the poor souls on board.

[Perik Omo]

Holy crap, daughter, son-in-law and 3 grand kids flew over Ukraine day before yesterday on Singapore Airlines SQ308, I was tracking it on Flightradar24 and was surprised that it was flying over that particular area!!!

[folos]

If true, this is probably the most terrifying news I've ever heard.

[rich85uk]

Reported to on been travelling with an altitude of 10km so hardly flying low! This is unacceptable, can see this going very bad very quickly. Military attack on Russia?

[darreni]

petemurphy]areemK said:

WHY THE F**K ARE COMMERCIAL AEROPLANES STILL FLYING OVER THE WAR ZONE THAT IS EASTERN UKRAINE???

Or Israel or anywhere where there are missiles being launched skyward. It beggars belief.[/quote

was my first thought. if it was russia or ukraine what would be the implications bar serious words..

Cameron's & Obama's testicular fortitude will be tested I'd have thought. Maximum provocation.

RIP to those onboard, shocking.

[Norfolkit]

tleefox said:

onyx39 said:

Awful for the passengers, but the consequences are quite terrifying.

This.

If this is proven to be the Russians, this has the potential to be the start of WW3.

Edited by tleefox on Thursday 17th July 16:43

I don't think so.
Remember the Soviet Union downed a Korean Airlines 747 at the height of the Cold War, that didn't start WW3, I doubt this will either but someone needs to send Putin a "please fk off or join the 21st Century" card. Of course we don't know what's actually happened yet.

[Badgerboy]

tleefox said:

This.

If this is proven to be the Russians, this has the potential to be the start of WW3.

Edited by tleefox on Thursday 17th July 16:43

I wouldn't quite over react to that. Both the US and Russia (Soviets) have shot down civilian airliners in times of higher flashpoints.

Not to say this can't get serious, but I wouldn't get whipped up into a "We are all going die" mentality quite yet.

[onyx39]

Interfax saying that it was shot down by one of these:

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

[bstb3]

According to some expert on the bbc website it would have been at an altitude of around 6 miles / 9km. Thats obviously assuming it wasn't in some kind of mechanical trouble. Given the Transport plane that was shot down earlier in the week was blamed on Russia, as the rebels don't have missiles that could go high enough, this would rather cast any doubt on claims that rebels could have shot it down. That only leaves 3 possibilities:

1) Mechanical / terrorism and massive coincidence where it happened;
2) The rebels are actually getting state of the art hardware supplied to them;
3) The missile was Russian / Ukrainian Military.

3 is pretty scary, 2 is most likely (to me) but 1 is probably, as horrible as it is in it's own right, the best option.

Really sad news though for the passengers, families and anyone connected. fk this world sometimes.

[Esseesse]

darreni said:

petemurphy]areemK said:

WHY THE F**K ARE COMMERCIAL AEROPLANES STILL FLYING OVER THE WAR ZONE THAT IS EASTERN UKRAINE???

Or Israel or anywhere where there are missiles being launched skyward. It beggars belief.[/quote

was my first thought. if it was russia or ukraine what would be the implications bar serious words..

Cameron's & Obama's testicular fortitude will be tested I'd have thought. Maximum provocation.

RIP to those onboard, shocking.

Still, if proven to be shot down by Russians what will further confrontation achieve?

I suppose warning and then following through with taking down any Russian military planes entering US/EU air space could happen?

[BlackST]

@MAS: Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow.

[Mr Trophy]

RIP, absolutely horrendous.

I am now stting myself as my Mum is currently in the air flying to NY. I am sure she'll be fine!

[rover 623gsi]

Scary – was it shot down by ‘accident’ or was it shot down despite knowing what plane it was?

[TheEnd]

"16:50: An advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashenko, says the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) when it was "hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher", in a post on his Facebook page, according to the Associated Press."

It seems a bit early to be identifying the missile.

[anonymous-user]

the Americans did it against Iran and never paid a penny, so i guess if Russia did it they will never admit to it.

It could be a game that Russia will blame the Ukraine, but they actually did it, but maybe never find out..

[TheForceV4]

Here you go.

http://news.sky.com/story/1302864/malaysian-plane-...

Jesus.

[rollondeath]

folos said:

If true, this is probably the most terrifying news I've ever heard.

Really?

[fido]

folos said:

If true, this is probably the most terrifying news I've ever heard.

I remember the KAL007 incident as a kid and I was peeved off with the Ruskies then. That wasn't an accident - they followed it and shot it down. This one might have been accidental .. we'll wait and see.

[Fittster]

Grandad7184 said:

the Russians have already shot down a jet this week.

Says who?

[V41LEY]

I'm following the new on RT - Russia Today. Quite illuminating.
Being described as a tragic crash !

RT is running the story of a Siberian Airlines Flight 1812 explosion over the Black Sea
which was shot down by accident by a SAM launched by the Ukraine Air Defense.