Malaysian passenger plane shot down in Ukraine near Russian border with 295 people aboard
National Post Wire Services | July 17, 2014 | Last Updated: Jul 17 3:31 PM ET
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Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty ImagesA
man wearing military fatigues stands next to the wreckage of the
Malaysian airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur
after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east
Ukraine, on July 17, 2014.
KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official said a passenger plane carrying
295 people was shot down Thursday over a town in eastern Ukraine.
Malaysia Airlines tweeted that it lost contact with one of its flights
over Ukrainian airspace.
As plumes of black smoke rose up near a rebel-held village of Grabovo in eastern Ukraine, an Associated Press journalist counted at least 22 bodies at the crash site 40 kilometres from the Russian border.
The plane appeared to have broken up before impact and the burning wreckage — which included body parts and the belongings of passengers — was scattered over a wide area. The White House said officials were working to confirm a report that 23 U.S. citizens were among the dead, according to Reuters.
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on
his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres
when it was hit 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 Buk missile system can
fire missiles up to an altitude of 22,000 metres.
“Just now near Torez, terrorists used a Buk missile system kindly provided by Putin to shoot down a civilian plane,” Gerashchenko said on Facebook.
The region has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent days.
Unverified footage posted to YouTube appeared to show smoke from the crash billowing up from a field.
“Horrified by reports of a Malaysian Airlines plane crashing near the Ukraine/Russia border. We are following the situation very closely,” Canadian foreign affairs minister John Baird tweeted Thursday.
Tony Brenton, former British ambassador to Russia, said suspicion for bringing down the airliner would almost certainly fall on the Ukrainian separatists. He said the rebels had already brought down two Ukrainian government jets.
“The rebels have been supplied with relatively sophisticated equipment, nobody is admitting from where but almost certainly from Russia,” he told the BBC. “They have shot down low-flying military aircraft, but to shot down a high-flying civilian aircraft is a step up in their technology at their disposal.”
Emergency officials on site reported body parts were scattered as far as 15 kilometres away from the crash site, according to a tweet from Reuters.
Pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine denied shooting down the airliner and blamed Ukrainian armed forces, though Ukraine’s president says his country’s armed forces did not shoot at any airborne targets.
The Donetsk People’s Republic pro-Russia rebel group said it would turn over the recovered flight recorders to “high-class experts” in Moscow to determine the cause of the crash, “though it seems obvious enough anyway,” Russian state media Russia Today reported.
President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday “we do not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets.”
Poroshenko said “we are sure that those who are guilty in this tragedy will be held responsible.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he is launching an “immediate investigation” into reports of a the crash. Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein tweeted that there is no confirmation that the plane was shot down. He said he has instructed the country’s military to check and get confirmation.
President Putin spoke with the Malaysian prime minister Thursday, expressing his “deep condolences,” according to a Kremlin news release.
Russia Today posted an “eyewitness photo” of debris at the crash site, showing two people standing on a piece of the plane, with its windows and door intact.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and President
Barack Obama have discussed the Malaysia Airlines plane incident over
eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin website published a statement late Thursday that says “the Russian leader informed the U.S. president of the report from air traffic controllers that the Malaysian plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory, which had arrived immediately before the phone call.”
The statement gave no further details about what the leaders discussed with regard to the plane crash. The rest of the phone call was dedicated to the general situation in eastern Ukraine, and recent U.S. sanctions against Russian individuals and companies.
On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kyiv says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet hit by the air-to-air missile was forced to bail after his jet was shot down.
Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the second jet was hit by a portable surface-to-air missile, but added the pilot was unscathed and managed to land his plane safely.
Moscow denies Western charges that is supporting the separatists or sowing unrest in its neighbour. The Russian Defence Ministry couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday about the Ukrainian jet and Russia’s foreign ministry didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Ukraine said a military transport plane was shot down Monday by a missile fired from Russian territory.
The rebels are known to possess portable anti-aircraft rocket launchers, but Ukrainian officials say that kind of weapon would have been unable to reach Monday’s plane at the altitude at which it was flying Monday. Aviation experts, however, have questioned whether the stricken transport plane was flying at the altitude Ukrainian officials had claimed.
The Federal Aviation Administration had warned U.S. pilots earlier this year not to fly over portions of Ukraine in the Crimea region, according to notices posted on the agency’s website.
The notices were posted on April 23. The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization and the aviation authorities in most countries issue similar notices for areas where unrest or military conflict creates a risk of being shot down.
The FAA had not issued any new warnings Thursday in the immediate aftermath of reports that a Malaysian airliner had been shot down over the Ukraine. Russian airline Aeroflot announced Thursday it will no longer fly over Ukraine territory, Reuters reported.
As plumes of black smoke rose up near a rebel-held village of Grabovo in eastern Ukraine, an Associated Press journalist counted at least 22 bodies at the crash site 40 kilometres from the Russian border.
The plane appeared to have broken up before impact and the burning wreckage — which included body parts and the belongings of passengers — was scattered over a wide area. The White House said officials were working to confirm a report that 23 U.S. citizens were among the dead, according to Reuters.
Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty ImagesA
picture taken on July 17, 2014 shows wreckages of the Malaysian
airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it
crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
“Just now near Torez, terrorists used a Buk missile system kindly provided by Putin to shoot down a civilian plane,” Gerashchenko said on Facebook.
The region has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent days.
Unverified footage posted to YouTube appeared to show smoke from the crash billowing up from a field.
“Horrified by reports of a Malaysian Airlines plane crashing near the Ukraine/Russia border. We are following the situation very closely,” Canadian foreign affairs minister John Baird tweeted Thursday.
Tony Brenton, former British ambassador to Russia, said suspicion for bringing down the airliner would almost certainly fall on the Ukrainian separatists. He said the rebels had already brought down two Ukrainian government jets.
“The rebels have been supplied with relatively sophisticated equipment, nobody is admitting from where but almost certainly from Russia,” he told the BBC. “They have shot down low-flying military aircraft, but to shot down a high-flying civilian aircraft is a step up in their technology at their disposal.”
Emergency officials on site reported body parts were scattered as far as 15 kilometres away from the crash site, according to a tweet from Reuters.
Pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine denied shooting down the airliner and blamed Ukrainian armed forces, though Ukraine’s president says his country’s armed forces did not shoot at any airborne targets.
The Donetsk People’s Republic pro-Russia rebel group said it would turn over the recovered flight recorders to “high-class experts” in Moscow to determine the cause of the crash, “though it seems obvious enough anyway,” Russian state media Russia Today reported.
President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday “we do not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets.”
Poroshenko said “we are sure that those who are guilty in this tragedy will be held responsible.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he is launching an “immediate investigation” into reports of a the crash. Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein tweeted that there is no confirmation that the plane was shot down. He said he has instructed the country’s military to check and get confirmation.
President Putin spoke with the Malaysian prime minister Thursday, expressing his “deep condolences,” according to a Kremlin news release.
Russia Today posted an “eyewitness photo” of debris at the crash site, showing two people standing on a piece of the plane, with its windows and door intact.
AP Photo/Dmitry LovetskyPeople
walk amongst the debris, at the crash site of a passenger plane near
the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014.
The Kremlin website published a statement late Thursday that says “the Russian leader informed the U.S. president of the report from air traffic controllers that the Malaysian plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory, which had arrived immediately before the phone call.”
The statement gave no further details about what the leaders discussed with regard to the plane crash. The rest of the phone call was dedicated to the general situation in eastern Ukraine, and recent U.S. sanctions against Russian individuals and companies.
On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kyiv says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet hit by the air-to-air missile was forced to bail after his jet was shot down.
Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the second jet was hit by a portable surface-to-air missile, but added the pilot was unscathed and managed to land his plane safely.
Moscow denies Western charges that is supporting the separatists or sowing unrest in its neighbour. The Russian Defence Ministry couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday about the Ukrainian jet and Russia’s foreign ministry didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Ukraine said a military transport plane was shot down Monday by a missile fired from Russian territory.
The rebels are known to possess portable anti-aircraft rocket launchers, but Ukrainian officials say that kind of weapon would have been unable to reach Monday’s plane at the altitude at which it was flying Monday. Aviation experts, however, have questioned whether the stricken transport plane was flying at the altitude Ukrainian officials had claimed.
The Federal Aviation Administration had warned U.S. pilots earlier this year not to fly over portions of Ukraine in the Crimea region, according to notices posted on the agency’s website.
The notices were posted on April 23. The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization and the aviation authorities in most countries issue similar notices for areas where unrest or military conflict creates a risk of being shot down.
The FAA had not issued any new warnings Thursday in the immediate aftermath of reports that a Malaysian airliner had been shot down over the Ukraine. Russian airline Aeroflot announced Thursday it will no longer fly over Ukraine territory, Reuters reported.
Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty ImagesA
picture taken on July 17, 2014 shows wreckages of the malaysian
airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it
crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
The wreckages of the Malaysian airliner near Shaktarsk. (ZURAB DZHAVAKHADZE/AFP/Getty Images)
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 with tail number 9M-MRD —
the same aircraft that was shot down near the Ukraine Russia border on
Thursday — takes off from Los Angeles International Airport in 2012. (AP
Photo/JoePriesAviation.net)
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