All 295 people on board a Malaysia Airlines plane were killed on Thursday after the jet was shot down by “terrorists” over war-torn eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, nearly four months after the mysterious disappearance of MH370 in the Indian Ocean.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala lumpur carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew. Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it received notification from Ukrainian Air Traffic Control that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 at 1415 GMT (8:45 IST) at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
“Nearly 300 people died when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 crashed in eastern Ukraine,” an advisor to the Ukrainain Interior Minister, Anton Herashchenko, said.“It was flying at the altitude of 10,000 metres. 280 passengers and 15 crew members died,” he said in a Facebook post. “The aircraft was shot down over Ukraine by terrorists operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system,” he said.
Witnesses from the town of Torez in the rebellion-wracked Donetsk region of Ukraine told RIA Novosti news agency that the plane wreckage and dead bodies have been found in the area.At least several dozen bodies were found scattered around the crash site of the MalaysiaAirlines passenger plane in eastern Ukraine, witnesses said, adding the debris of the plane covered an area of about one square kilometre.
The plane disappeared from the radar and teams from the emergency services have reached the scene. Burning aircraft wreckage and bodies strewn on the ground were seen at the village of Grabovo, some 40 kms from the Russian border in an area where pro-Russian rebels are active. Malaysia Airlines confirmed on Twitter, “Malaysian Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position of the plane was over Ukrainian airspace”.
Malaysia’s Star newspaper quoting sources said the plane was “shot down” while cruising at an altitude of 30,000 feet. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the jetliner may have been shot down over his country’s airspace.
“This incident is not a catastrophe. It is a terrorist act,” he said. Ukrainian officials have accused pro-Russian rebels of being responsible for shooting down the plane. But the press service of the self-proclaimed luhansk People’s Republic claimed the jet was downed by a missile fired from a Ukrainian air force Su-25 combat jet, a charge denied by Ukraine.
“We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky,” Poroshenko said in a statement posted on the president’s website. The plane could have been brought down by a ground-to-air missile, sources said.
“I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on his Twitter feed. “We are launching an immediate investigation,” he said as he rushed to the Kuala lumpur airport.Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk also ordered a probe into accident. A number of Ukrainian military planes have been shot down by missiles in recent weeks. Ukraine has accused Russia’s military of supplying advanced missiles to the rebels, the BBC reported.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian officials blamed the Russian air force for shooting down one of its ground attack jets on Wednesday. Tensions have been high between Ukraine and Russia since street protests forced former pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February.
Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine’s southeastern Crimea region and a pro-Russia separatist rebellion has been raging in Ukraine’s eastern luhansk and Donetsk regions.Ukrainian forces have been struggling to quell the separatist unrest. Ukraine’s Government has accused Russia of allowing weapons and military equipment, including tanks, to cross the border illegally into the hands of pro-Russia separatists.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “expressed deep condolences” to Malaysia’s Prime Minister over the crash, a post Thursday on the Kremlin’s website said. He “asked to pass the most sincere word of condolences and support to families and relatives of (the crash) victims,” the post said.
Several airlines, including lufthansa and Air France, say they will now avoid eastern Ukrainian airspace.Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama was briefed by his national security team on the Malaysian plane crash in Ukraine. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama has been briefed about the airliner crash and had instructed his staff to keep him updated.
Obama also asked his officials to contact senior Ukrainian officials, Earnest told reporters travelling with the President abroad Air Force One. However, Earnest did not confirm the crash itself, just that the White House had seen reports on it.
Not the First Time
Inadvertent military shoot-downs of civilian passenger aircraft have taken place in the past
October 4, 2001: Siberia Airlines 1812 — Flying between Tel Aviv and Novosibirsk a Tupolev Tu-154 was apparently hit by a missile during naval exercises killing all 78 onboard. This incident is yet to be conclusively proven
July 3, 1988: IranAir 655 — Flying between Bandar Abbas and Dubai an Airbus A300 was shot down by the US Naval ship USS Vincennes killing 280 people
September 1, 1983: Korean Air 007 — Flying between Anchorage and Seoul, this Boeing 747 was miles off-course and flew over highly militarized Soviet airspace. A Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 shot down the Boeing killing all 269 on-board