Malaysian Airlines 777 down on Ukraine / Russia Border?

[Urban Sports]

scubadude said:

Ukraine/Russia needs to be sodding careful too, while its fairly retarded to fly over a war zone the ultimate responsibility lies with the muppet pulling the trigger, imagine if they'd hit an American airliner!

My brother in law just messaged me, he piloted his Emirates 777 over that border this morning!

[HannsG]

Can a stinger missile shoot at that range? 33,000 feet???

[Eric Mc]

Chimune said:

Might force the Russians to distance themselves from the Ukrainian mess that they seem to think they have control over. Kiev will keep the rebels in a small area and time will pass until the next flair up.

ww3 this aint.

Absolutely. There have been a host of such shoot downs over the years - some right in the middle of the Cold War (KAL 007 for example). WW3 didn't start that time either.

[AlexIT]

KareemK said:

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

I don't know now if it was coincidence, but when I flew to and from Hong Kong a few weeks ago from Milan, I noticed that we flew both times well away from Ukraine (north on the way out and south on the way back).
I thought it was because of security reasons, but now I have the feeling it was just "by chance".

RIP to all those on board

[Puggit]

HannsG said:

Can a stinger missile shoot at that range? 33,000 feet???

No where near - it takes proper military hardware (not guerrilla style) to shoot down something that high

[Dr Jekyll]

Pesty said:

WW3 ?


Has everybody forgotten about the uss Vincennes already that didn't start world war three why should this.

Also if it was Ukraine what then?

At the time of the Vincennes incident the US and Iran were virtually at war anyway, so not the same. KAL007 is the closest comparison I can think of.

[anonymous-user]

HannsG said:

Can a stinger missile shoot at that range? 33,000 feet???

that is what i thought, but i guess they just aim at the sky and press the button on the rocket and fire...blind

But I do think it is Russia as they need a good excuse to invade the Ukraine.

[MattDell]

I'm not convinced it was shot down. I'm sure either side would be quick to blame the other for such a tragedy and there isn't any hard evidence yet for it.

[Urban Sports]

2 Malaysian Airlines 777's since March and nearly 550 people dead, bad for business!

[HannsG]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

BUK missiles can, and much higher!

bloody hell. Surely this cannot be deliberate. No one is that stupid??

[thehawk]

bstb3 said:

3) The missile was Russian / Ukrainian Military.

Who knows what sort of games these people play to try and implicate each other.

[Scuffers]

HannsG said:

Can a stinger missile shoot at that range? 33,000 feet???

no.

your talking serious stuff to do this, as in this:

[buckline]

The sad thing is that if it were shot down, which is reasonably likely, the evidence will disappear extremely quickly.

RIP all those on board.

[BlackST]

Scuffers said:

no.

your talking serious stuff to do this, as in this:

Which is what it is rumoured to have been shot down by? A BUK missile launcher.

[DonnyMac]

y2blade said:

DonnyMac said:

I just caught "shot down from altitude" on LBC.

Jesus wept, going on hols to South East Asia and someone shoots you out of the sky, I feel a little bit sick.

If responsible, Vlad is in deep, deep st.

Shouldn't that read "If responsible, We could all be in deep, deep st" ?



This is not going to end well

Precisely; obviously my thoughts go out to the 295 passengers and crew but, but, but... this has serious ramifications for all of us.

If Russia is responsible, what will the West do? Putin diplomatically out manoeuvred the West over Crimea and we backed down - US/Europe et al won't want to be seen to be soft on this.

Putin isn't the sort to back down; didn't we up the stakes on sanctions only this week?

This could be a game changer.

[Norfolkit]

AlexIT said:

KareemK said:

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

I don't know now if it was coincidence, but when I flew to and from Hong Kong a few weeks ago from Milan, I noticed that we flew both times well away from Ukraine (north on the way out and south on the way back).
I thought it was because of security reasons, but now I have the feeling it was just "by chance".

RIP to all those on board

Fairly standard route out to KL or Singapore isn't it, that's the way we always go when going out to Oz, that's the way we came back in February (you also get the pleasure of flying over Afghanistan, war zone BOGOF).

[HannsG]

Who will lead the charge on repercussions?

This is outrageous!

[anonymous-user]

Scuffers said:

no.

your talking serious stuff to do this, as in this:

you mean what Russia have been supplying to the separatists..

[Fittster]

HannsG said:

kapiteinlangzaam said:

BUK missiles can, and much higher!

bloody hell. Surely this cannot be deliberate. No one is that stupid??

There are lots of stupid people about. Jumpy Ukraine conscript sees an unidentified plan on a radar screen, jumps to the conclusion "The Russians are coming!". Make up your own scenario, there are plenty of possibilities.

And do you think whoever did it is going to own up?

[scenario8]

AlexIT said:

I don't know now if it was coincidence, but when I flew to and from Hong Kong a few weeks ago from Milan, I noticed that we flew both times well away from Ukraine (north on the way out and south on the way back).
I thought it was because of security reasons, but now I have the feeling it was just "by chance".

RIP to all those on board

Milan - Hong Kong flies north of Ukraine? Every day's a school day.