Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, Boeing 777, Reportedly Shot-down Near Russia-Ukraine Border

Watching ABC News 24.
Just announced.

Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight.
Appears to have been taken out by a surface-to-air missile.
Talk of 280 passengers and 15 crew dead.

Another big, sad, aviation story developing.
Follow live if equally interested / horrified.

Update: 298 people were on the flight, not 295.

28 Australians confirmed dead at this point, along with 192 Dutch, 23 from Malaysia, 11 Indonesians, 6 Britons, 4 Germans, 4 Belgians, 3 from the Philippines and 1 Canadian. A number still of unidentified nationality.

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Comments

  • +2

    omg? here I am flying MAS to London soon…>.<

      • +3

        This going to sound bad… But I can't put it any other way.
        MAS are offering refunds, check their FB page. Personally, I wouldn't do it… But if you want to, you can.

  • +2

    early speculation is that malaysia airlines has been taking a short cut too close to russian airspace and got shot down by a separatist…

    • -6

      and got shot down by a separatist…

      How do they know it was a separatist?

      • +3

        a few sources here

      • -1

        How do they know it was a separatist?

        That way they cover their butt, separatist (from Russia) or (from Ukraine)

        ABC learns from ACA

    • +6

      From the SMH newspaper:
      Despite the turmoil in eastern Ukraine, the commercial airspace over that part of the country is a heavily trafficked route and has remained open.

      Plenty of flights fly over Russia and Ukraine.

      • +5

        I'd say from the reports it looked like airlines were warned there might be trouble with conflicting air traffic controlls from the two countries.

        But they might not have known Russia had given its army in the Ukraine surface to air missiles.

    • Basically, there is a 'restricted' area and 'prohibited' area. US, UK and Australian airlines normally avoid both areas, for safety of their guests . Ukraine was a prohibited area (the war is still on)… but MAS and SIA often choose this route to save on fuel costs. Idiots. SIA has only gotten lucky so far; whereas MAS was caught out.

      Update: Malaysia Airlines flight was actually just 1,000 feet above restricted Ukraine airspace

      • +1

        The flight plan they filed for was for 35,000 feet but the ATC directed the pilots to fly at 33,000 feet. And besides, many commercial flights fly over conflict areas regularly at 30,000 ft+ under the assumption that it's safe as only military grade weaponry can have the reach to target those above 30,000 ft. Air travel wouldn't be as convenient and accessible for most if airlines stop flying all conflict zones all together. The only areas where airlines will not fly are Somalia & North Korean airspace, many commercial flights fly over Syria and etc daily.

        http://mashable.com/2014/07/18/ukraine-planes-conflict-zones…

  • +5

    Google realtime tracking
    http://news.google.com.au/news/rtc?ncl=dksPxnN5DSML1XMkPy57L…

    Going to hit 3000 news stories soon.

    Passports recovered from the crash site:
    http://i.imgur.com/Wu3tzy5.png
    http://i.imgur.com/vASJb4o.png
    http://i.imgur.com/aolpK6p.png

    Tweet: Russian Rebels may have had a BUK missile weapon which they used to take down aircraft at high alt.
    https://twitter.com/magicbravosolo/status/489816369907900417

    Hull breach where the missile may have penetrated the aircraft (speculation)
    https://twitter.com/fawadrehman/status/489822370144980992/ph…

    From the news, it appears that the separatists were bragging on social media on how they downed several Ukrainian planes but had mis-identified the aircraft and shot the passenger jet down as a consequence.
    Prior to the MH17 crash, Ukraine had accused Russia of shooting down their jet fighters while they were flying over the conflict area. These two events are thought to be linked,

    Reddit:
    "My friend's Ukrainian friend says: "Our def ministry says they were trying to shoot down our military cargo plane that also was flying in that area, but made a mistake. Russian leader of separatists out there just posted to social network that they "shot down AN-26" (the model that is actually used as military cargo by our army), thus it may take them some time to realize they shot the wrong one."

    • +5

      The world's media, including 'serious' outlets, had so decidedly and comprehensively drifted away from reporting on the Ukrainian conflict.

      Back in focus now.

  • +1

    From SMH:
    US intelligence officials confirmed to American media that a surface-to-air missile brought down the airline. However, which side used the missile was less clear, officials said.

    Wasn't this flight plan, with AirAsia to get to KL posted here as a cheap way to Europe recently? I hope there are none of our community affected, and feel terrible for all the families of the people on that flight.

  • Dutch authorities are saying that there were 27 Australians on-board.

  • Dreadful, who knows where this takes us. USA is now talking about supporting Ukraine…….back to the cold war?

    • Gut-feeling is that this incident will indeed spike the both the U.S and the European Union to properly move for the provision of serious military and/or more financial (read 'arms') assistance to Ukraine, despite Security Council ructions and veto moves from the usual suspects.

      The latter in the circumstance will face a whole new level of international condemnation if they are seen to be actively thwarting an end to the conflict.

      If anything good comes out of this, it will be that it serves as a real 'fly in the ointment' as relates Putin's obvious plans.

      • The sanction is already on

      • +1

        Yes, the solution would always be arming the opposition.

  • +4

    Apparently there were a bunch of world leading AIDS researches on that flight coming to Melbourne for a conference…

    • -1

      Yes, and no doubt there will be some rhetoric about that in Russia and from the full-on U.S. religious nutter 'AIDS=Gay Plague and God's Vengeance' brigade.

      • +3

        Nah man, I really doubt that anybody on either side of that particular debate would be so tactless…

        • -1

          Best anticipated. Like bad pennies (and bad Putins) they always turn up…

        • +3

          Westboro (Baptist) Church begs to differ…

    • I haven't read that one, but there's a whole bunch of conspiracy theories popping up right now. CIA operatives shot down the plane (blame Russia for it, allow more sanctions), Ukrainian government shot it down (to get the EU to supply arms to fight separatists), and that the plane was deliberately diverted from its usual flight path so that it would get shot down (Ukrainian operatives blamed there too). Apparently the only thing that could not have possibly happened is that separatists got their hands on radar guided surface to air missiles (confirmed weeks ago) and sought to shoot down what they thought was a Ukrainian aircraft (several aircraft have been shot down in the region in past weeks). Naa, that couldn't have possibly happened.

      • t separatists got their hands on radar guided surface to air missiles

        Pretty sure you would need laser guided missiles to shoot down planes in air space

    • +2

      Well, one of my friends told me she will attend that conference, one of the head of the conference was killed by this accident.

      • +1

        Yup - can confirm too

    • +1

      Personally, that's the greatest tragedy from this whole incident. AIDS researchers being killed, when they are the ones doing the greater good for humanity.

      Doesn't seem right.

  • +11

    US intelligence? Is this the same US intelligence that said there were WMDs in Iraq? Or the same US intelligence that supposedly can't figure what happened to MH370 but can regurgitate all the emails you've sent in the past few years? Things are not always what they seem. But my heart goes out to the families and friends of the innocents who have been murdered on MH17.

  • +6

    Tragic. Almost seems 100% sure it was the Ukranian Rebels.
    Unluckily it was Malaysia Air involved, it's surely the final nail in the coffin for them. Tens of thousands of people could well be out of work very soon.

    For people who don't understand how air travel works, there are defined flight paths, the pilots don't just go into the air and fly wherever they want. There were dozens of planes in the air over Ukraine at the time MH17 was shot down, let alone the amount that follow the same path every year. Commercial airlines travel over Iraq, Afghanistan etc every day. Have a look at the Flight Radar, you'll notice a lot of key corridors: http://www.flightradar24.com/37.78,43.29/6

    Lots of information here: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/2ayjwz/malaysian_…

    • My understanding is that going back for some time now, the American authorities actually banned U.S. carriers from flying near the directly affected region.

      Other countries / airlines / relevant international authorities clearly should have heeded and followed suit.

      General failure + 'fuel-cost-pressure overriding any safety concerns', will probably be the final sad assessment.

      • +1

        Quote possibly, you can't take every precaution though. Plenty of things are banned in Australia and not elsewhere, and vice versa.
        Planes fly over Iraq and Afghanistan all the time, there's dozens in the sky right now.
        More interesting will be if a 3rd party is ever revealed; seems unlikely a bunch of idiot rebels can obtain and use ground to air missile systems so easily without any outside help.

        • -5

          Planes fly over Iraq and Afghanistan all the time, there's dozens in the sky right now.

          OMG !!!

          http://www.flightradar24.com/33.39,67.2/6

        • +3

          The missile carrier implicated is of Russian build and of unknown sophistication-update/specific-vintage, but I'm not doubting (at this point anyway) that it arrived in rebel hands by way of direct Russian connivance.

        • +5

          Here is a photo of the BUK controls.

          https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BsxmEGRIQAAH0WQ.jpg:large

          Clearly not something you just walk into and use without a lot of training.

  • -1

    I smell WW3 coming

    • +29

      That's just your wheelie bin.

    • +6

      Nah, not enough Americans on board…

      • +1

        Yes… but there may still turn out to have been one or two on board, maybe even actual 'celebrities'. B-grade sitcom actors, very possibly sufficient…

        • +1

          Yes… but there may still turn out to have been one or two on board

          As many as 23 Americans on board ???

        • Interesting that no American losses at all were reported initially - to accompany the other nationalities that were largely clear from the manifest.

          All bets may be off, after all, re:WW3.

    • -1

      you neggers!

  • +1

    Planes seem to be avoiding the area at the moment…

    http://www.flightradar24.com/48.5,36.88/7

    Here is the flight path of MH17…

    • +1

      I'm definitely not going anywhere near the joint.

    • +8

      I did not consider that that loss necessarily reflected badly on Malaysian Airlines.

      How can you not know where your plane is at all times in this day and age ???

      • -1

        Until there was a definitive outcome (as opposed to wild speculation), it was not going to affect my decisions of airline selection. Now 'all bets are off'.

        • +9

          It's not speculation…

          Malaysian Airlines have no idea where their plane went…

          How many other airlines have lost a whole passenger plane and not know where it went…

        • +1

          you win

      • +6

        There is no radar coverage over most of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Unless airlines specifically buy an upgrade for their planes to report position information via satellite it's not automatically reported. The usual procedure is pilots regularly report their position, are given a certain track to fly and use their radio and radar to steer clear of other flights. Until MH370 most of the public just assumed because we have GPS and satellites that of course every airline knows exactly where their plane is at all times, even when it's thousands of kilometres from the nearest land based radar.

    • +3

      Your post makes absolutely no sense.

      1. The loss of MH370 reflected horribly on Malaysian Airlines. Take a look at their stock price, quarterly revenue, and the prices that they have had to lower their tickets to. A plane disappears for a number of weeks without explanation - people will question the airline's safety and security. And then it was revealed that the government knew the plane was hijacked almost immediately after the incident took place - and never told anyone.

      2. MH17 was a terribly tragedy. However, you cannot completely put blame on the airline. A large proportion of airlines continued to fly the Ukraine route despite the escalation of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. The International Air Transportation Associated had not ruled the area out as restricted airspace.

      Source

      • +9

        MH17 was TWO HUNDRED miles outside of the recommended "no fly" zone.
        It was also above the "no fly" altitude.
        A ton of planes had taken a very similar route with no loss of life.
        There are planes going over Iraq and Afghanistan constantly. It's not like air traffic only travel over 'safe countries', civilian aircraft fly far too high for usual weapons, and shooting them down certainly won't win any favours.
        Of course, a 500 million euro BUK ground to air missile system has a lot more capability then any rebel army usually has…

      • And they still try to rip off during school holidays :(

    • What bad impression did you get about Malaysians?

      • Paul Keating did once say that they were 'recalcitrant'…and he oughta know, coz he was pretty bloody intractable himself most of the time! ;)

  • +4

    Note to oneself: Don't board any flights that have a flight path across areas of escalating military conflict.

  • -1

    So lesson learnt - before you book that cheap tickets to Europe, make sure you check the flight routes first. There's no point buying a cheap ticket when they're just gonna fly straight to Europe over the conflict zones (Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc)to cut their fuel costs.

    CMIIW, that means the safest route to go to Europe is to fly to North America first and fly over North Atlantic Ocean to Europe. If it's gonna cost me an extra $ 300 to do this, I think it's worth every penny. I'm just thinking out loud because I'm planning to go to Europe next year.

    • +1

      Well, what if the tension between US and china in South China Sea broke out then? As far as I know the tension between China and Japan in regards to Senkaku island is pretty high, plus any aircraft carrier on the ocean can shoot down anything on the air….just saying…you can never predict the future..

      • +2

        When was the last time you hear Japan or China shoot down a civilian aircraft?

        • +1

          When was the last time any civilian aircraft was shot down generally? Its anyone's guess what's going to happen next

      • The probability of you getting killed by any means in an aircraft is negligible compared to road traffic accidents in any country. So never get out of your home.

    • +8

      Routes change by the hour and by the day according to the prevailing winds and weather at the time. This is a silly comment and shows your lack of understanding of how air corridors work.

  • +13

    I think everyone just overreacting…this incident is purely unlucky for MAS airline…

    Like every other articles, hundreds of flight fly across Ukrainian airspace every day…but it just had to be them..blame on on fate or luck?

    Surely the dumb militants could have at least warned before firing a missile…bunch of idiots who only know how to fight war…

    • +3

      Blaming the incident on fate suggests it was inevitable. It was going to happen regardless. That's not true as dozens, if not hundreds of people made choices along the way to enable the incident to happen. Someone made a choice to push the trigger.

      Blaming bad luck is also a little iffy. For some reason MH17's flight path was further north than usual. Maybe it was diverting around traffic, or bad weather, or riding favourable air currents. Unknown at this extremely early stage. Regions of Ukraine have airspace closed to 32,000 feet. MH17 was at 33,000, so legally perfectly fine. Other airlines were forbidden to fly through Ukrainian airspace (eg. USA since April) and other countries strongly discouraged flights over eastern Ukraine (eg. UK). This time around the quest for the shortest, lowest cost path has had tragic consequences.

      Unfortunately the downing of civilian aircraft is not a new thing. See KAL007. Full up close visual confirmation of the plane's markings before it was shot down.

    • +1

      Jesus christ!
      The second time in this year! MH370,MH17.
      MHS is going to bankrupt sooner or later!

    • My thoughts exactly. It's certainly not the first time that a civilian aircraft was shot down by a country mistakenly ( US and Ukraine itself comes to my mind). The rebels were targeted by Ukrainian army by airstrikes and just recently 40 people were killed . They have been giving warning not to fly over their airspace. Its a great tragedy that innocent have been killed by some stupid rebels, no one could have anticipated that this could have happened given that the flight was above 30,000 feet. As Skyl mentioned…its just fate or luck.

  • +2

    I'm actually more worried about my flight to Europe gotcancelled because MAS airline gone bankrupt, instead been shot down or gone missing mysteriously.

    • +3

      worry, worry, worry. That's not going to help you enjoy your travel. Either you go or you don't. Enjoy your holiday!!!!

    • +2

      CHILL…you might as well said you don't wanna drive then cuz accident happen everyday?

    • +1

      I think they have pills for that.

  • +15

    The important thing to remember is this was not a horrible accident. This was murder.
    If someone went to the CBD right now and gunned down 28 people would you be happy just letting them go to keep the peace? Let alone 300 people from all around the world.
    Burn in hell.

    • +5

      finally someone speak some sense…this is pure fault on the rebels who fired the missiles..not some MAS problem ..

      The pilot would done the same route over and over before…

      • +8

        https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BsxmEGRIQAAH0WQ.jpg:large
        Think anyone could jump in this and start shooting down planes?
        These things cost in the vicinity of 500 million euro.
        The training to maintain, and operate these is enormous.

        A group of poor, stupid rebels managed to get their hands on and operate this? Laughable.
        There is undoubtedly a silent partner in all of this.
        If you give a loaded gun to a toddler who is truly at fault?
        Whether Russia was behind it, or Ukraine supplying Russian weapons in order to win support for their cause (the perfect cover)… who knows.
        I truly hope someone pays. The large scale makes it seem all so small. Imagine someone walked into your office building, school, church… and one by one killed 300 people. It is insane. And to blame the victims…

        • just find it hard to see the world would put the blame on Russia or even "pro-russia" Ukraine in this matter…

        • +1

          The black boxes are on their way to Moscow.
          As someone else put it, "might as well have had Al Qaeda investigate September 11".
          They didn't shoot down Korean Air until they were faced with overwhelming evidence. Then it changed to, "oh well we did, but it was totally their fault".

        • +2

          both times korean air veered off their flight plan and didn't respond to being hailed.

          funnily enough the first operational success of the american missile defence system was by shooting down an iranian commercial airliner in 1988.

        • @rochow: Iran Air Flight 655.

        • +1

          Yes, when we will learn…

          This one is different in:
          1) they were flying fine not in restricted airspace (Korea air)
          2) transponder was on and clear (Iran air)
          3) no-one attempted contact first (per others). Just shot it out of the sky

          Not saying the others weren't also shocking, I understand a lot more that the planes went near military, they followed steps to try and determine friend or foe, and made the wrong choice. It's almost like a police officer who is out under pressure to make a quick call to shoot or not and takes the wrong option. Vs someone who walked into the street and shot a random person with no warning.

        • I would suspect Ukraine has a lot to gain from setting this up. The president was very content the world was now seeing its russian border conflict and was asking for everyone to join in and help now.

        • +2

          @carlitos: definitely wouldn't rule out Ukraine yet. The perfect ploy to get people on their side.

        • @justcallmeboss: Iran Air was shot down by a US Naval Ship, it was hailed by radio and asked/warned. US admitted what it had done and didn't try to weasel out of it like Russia now seems to be doing

        • @rochow:

          Ukrainian military have also shot down a passenger plane before during "training" exercises

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812

        • @2ndeffort admitted after almost a decade after iran took the matter up with international court you mean? and even then refused to apologise for it? (george bush snr)

  • +5

    holly crap, just yesterday I was checking flight to Dubai for end of year and cheapest was Malaysian air lines and I thought I might get them, but after what happened today, even though it had nothing to do with the quality of the aircraft (obviously it was shot down) one would still be hesitant to fly with Malaysian air lines after 2 incidents in less then 6 months.

    • I just hope they don't go bankrupt before I fly to London In September…not worry about me being shot down again..

      • -2

        it says 27 Australians, some might have been OZbargainers flying with the cheapest available airline :P nah but jokes aside, people have that mentality that once something like that happens the chances of it happening again are slim, just like when there is a robbery at your local gas station, you just feel like the chances of it happening again any time soon are non existent.
        that's what those passengers must have been feeling, such a sad tragedy..

    • no, you should go ahead, just like some of our brave, happy go lucky fellow OzBer…<CHILL…you might as well said you don't wanna drive then cuz accident happen everyday?>, if you do drive everyday, follow your plan, save you self $200-400 , you won't go missing, you won't be shot down…don't worry, everything gonna be OK…bad luck won't strike twice..no way..

      • +1

        I am going ahead, don't you worry about my plan as I never once said cancelling my flight with MAS..:) I will have a good time, don't you worry ..

    • going from here to dxb won't go through the no fly zone though?

  • +1

    Perhaps this is a stupid question,. If one were to have bought the tickets with their credit card (with complimentary insurance), would they be covered? I'm interested since Ukraine was sort of a war zone, and insurance t&cs usually have some exclusion clauses relating to entering conflict zones or losses due to military actions, revolutions and such.

    • +3

      Not a stupid question, but products and services that come with 'complimentary' insurance do indeed tend to also come with exclusion clauses that are as long as your arm. Not that regular insurance can to be lacking in the exclusion-clause department, but add-on, and especially, 'complimentary' tends to be extra-flimsy, with lots of catches.

  • -2

    Singapore Airlines it is! #amverysorry #cautiousozbargaineriscautious #the99percent

    • +4

      but singapore airline were flying at the same air route before the incident…….pointed by aircloud

  • +1

    Folks can we show a bit of respect with the jokes and if all some of you have to worry about is will MAL go into bankruptcy think about the poor souls on that aircraft such as the grandfather and the 3 children he was bringing home from Europe having left the parents behind to finish their holiday. There was a teacher on board as well from a school not 20 mins from us (Toorack collage in Mt Eliza). Very very sad.

  • +1

    Duke Franz Ferdinand?

  • +1

    I thought this was a bargain website…

    • +3

      Way beyond bargains.
      The opinions offered are totally free. There isn't even a Facebook-thumbing required…

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