MH17 Malaysia airlines plane shot down over Ukraine

Watching this on CNN now. This is horrible.

If the 295 figure is confirmed, this will be the biggest loss of life in an air crash since 1996, and one of the deadliest in history.

295 dead, shot down with BUK-M1 missiles given by Russia to the separatists. Separatists mistook the 777 for an AN-26 at 9 500 m, misreading the squawk signal that the radar would have been picking up. My bets is that they were shooting at anything flying above.

An investigation will be difficult. The separatists control the area the plane went down.

Xelebes said:

295 dead, shot down with BUK-M1 missiles given by Russia to the separatists. Separatists mistook the 777 for an AN-26 at 9 500 m, misreading the squawk signal that the radar would have been picking up. My bets is that they were shooting at anything flying above.

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Is that bit about the separatists confirmed? There was some jiggery-pokery on Twitter with a guy called Strelkov appearing to claim responsibility, then retracting (and screengrabs of his claim appearing to show timestamps prior to the atrocity.)

So horrific. I am flying to Amersterdam next week so I find it all to easy to image being on that flight.

The Strelov thing is being mentioned as if it could refer to this flight--but Ukraine confirmed that a military transport plane was also hit. So it was not the same event.

But I find the Ukraine comment that they have not been firing at planes (having no reason to), and the insurgents have to be fairly convincing--ergo the pro-Russian forces seem the likely responsible partly, mostly likely from being trigger happy.

There is likely to be some satellite info forthcoming.

I find it somewhat confusing that a passenger jet was flying over a region where there are insurgents running about with SAMs? Were they supposed to be in Ukraine airspace? Did they get lost?

Torgo I had the same thought. Seems strange, and I wonder why they flew over the Ukraine to begin with. I know nothing about aviation needs in that area; maybe it was hard to avoid for some reason.

Torgo said:

Is that bit about the separatists confirmed? There was some jiggery-pokery on Twitter with a guy called Strelkov appearing to claim responsibility, then retracting (and screengrabs of his claim appearing to show timestamps prior to the atrocity.)

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Yes Girkin (Strelkov) was bragging about the time of the downing but he has tried to recant, at best renouncing.

Torgo said:

I find it somewhat confusing that a passenger jet was flying over a region where there are insurgents running about with SAMs? Were they supposed to be in Ukraine airspace? Did they get lost?

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It is a major flight corridor for trans-continental flights from one end to another. There had not been any activity that imperiled flights flying in cruising altitudes. The separatists getting their hands on BUK-M1 missiles have been really recent with the separatists flaunting their new arrivals to AP reporters right before the downing.

Planes having been flying over there pretty often by the sound of it, at a height that should have out them safety above the insurgent's weapons. A miscalculation.

Somebody shot it. Most likely the insurgents as they took down that transport plane at 21,000 feet shortly before. 30,000 is not a big leap from there especially as it might have been a bit lower than planned.

veinglory said:

The Strelov thing is being mentioned as if it could refer to this flight--but Ukraine confirmed that a military transport plane was also hit.

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Just a correction here. The Ukrainian government has not confirmed a coincident AN-26 downing. There has been an AN-26 downed two days ago not too far away from Snizhnoe but none today. An SU-25 was downed yesterday or early today by a Russian Su-27 in Ukrainian airspace.

Xelebes said:

Just a correction here. The Ukrainian government has not confirmed a coincident AN-26 downing. There has been an AN-26 downed two days ago not too far away from Snizhnoe but none today. An SU-25 was downed yesterday or early today by a Russian Su-27 in Ukrainian airspace.

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Ah, so that could indeed be the same event.

They are now also saying that weather had caused the plane to deviate from the flight corridor passenger planes normally use.

Dang, I didn't realize they were actually shot down.

melindamusil said:

It's (very) small consolation, but at least this happened over land so we can know the outcome of the flight (as opposed to MH370's probably-over-ocean disappearance).

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After my first shock at hearing the plane was shot down, this was the first thing that came to mind. At least the relatives of these passengers will know what happened and have bodies to bury.

kaitie said:

Dang, I didn't realize they were actually shot down.

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CNN was on in the lunch room at work and it was reporting a "crash" only. Absolutely nothing about shot down.

That was what I saw reported, too.

I read something about a Russian fighter jet being shot down as well. Not sure if this passenger airline being shot down is a matter of crossed wires and it as actually an unrelated crash, but we'll see. Horrible either way.

melindamusil said:

That number would make it the sixth-deadliest aviation accident in history, and like you said the deadliest since 1996.

(Thanks, Wikipedia...)

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Speaking of that year, today was the anniversary of the TWA 800 disaster. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_800

How bizarre.