Wow…bad times for Malaysian Airlines 295 lives reported lost. Possibly shot down? Sympathy for the families involved. 
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/17/world/europe/ukraine-malaysia-airlines-crash/index.html
Brings home how fortunate one can be , as I was on this flightpath just a few days ago 
At first I thought, “no, not another malaysian pilot committing suicide”. Then now it appears pretty certain that it was shot down. LIkely by russian defense forces.
Very sad.
US airlines had already been avoiding this airspace. This airspace needs to be shut down right now to commercial traffic
Nothing really anyone can do for those folks, except for the guilty to pay off the families. But all those people are dead if it was shot down and crashed and burned.
IF it was an American airliner shot down by the Russians we will be in a much more dangerous USA/Russia situ.
The Americans also shot down an Iranian airliner in the past thinking it was enemy aircraft.
Pictures of the wreckage on tv now. Seems Russian and Ukrainian forces , as well as rebel forces so far claim no knowledge . They will examine if it was a case of it being shot down or the plane had exploded. Prez Putin and Prez Obama talking on the fone about it. Neither of them seem to know whats what is what is reported.
Russians saying they have “nothing up there firing a missile”.
Seriously, what are these planes carrying?!
“A coincidence is a coincidence till it ain’t a coincidence no mo’”
Or something is really cooking in Malaysia.
Think nothing to do with malaysia. Just bad luck. Other flights were scheduled to fly that route and/or had been flying that route. But perhaps airlines despatch should avoid any airspace in conflict zones from now on, even if it was not banned.
US airlines had already been warned not to overfly, but I guess Malaysian like other Asian, etc airlines had continued with the route.
IN hindsight, a mistake.
Whichever route that plane was taking or not taking, a civilian aeroplane is easy to identify and there is no excuse for shooting it down. Shocking news. Shame on those who did this and sincere condolences for those who have lost loved ones.
So far nobody has said who fired the missile, right?
Nobody is quick to take the blame here because blame it is.
Seems pretty straightforward at this point: Russian rebels mistook it for a military transport plane and shot it down. They’ve already been shooting down Ukrainian military planes. The rebels posted on social media they shot down another transport plane after it crashed. The post got removed minutes after it was announced it was an airline jet. And no, it wouldn’t be easy for them to distinguish it as civilian at 33,000 ft. We’ll see if any investigation shines more light on it
Flying over a war zone isn’t the brightest of ideas
[quote=“buzzkill1”]Seems pretty straightforward at this point: Russian rebels mistook it for a military transport plane and shot it down. They’ve already been shooting down Ukrainian military planes. The rebels posted on social media they shot down another transport plane after it crashed. The post got removed minutes after it was announced it was an airline jet. And no, it wouldn’t be easy for them to distinguish it as civilian at 33,000 ft. We’ll see if any investigation shines more light on it
Flying over a war zone isn’t the brightest of ideas[/quote]
“Russian rebels”… this could lead to a long an interesting discussion that I’m not willing to have 
Looks like a lot of goodie bags for Russian rebels. Seriously, the photos showed a lot of luggage intact. And reports about the remains of the plain being ransacked start to appear. Well, black box has been taken as well. Plane was 10.000 km high and Russia claims their rebels would not be able to shoot a plane that high, yet reports about the rebels getting air defense batteries from Russia start to appear.
Photo evidence shows russian supported rebels in control of missile system able to down the jet. It has been suggested that Russian experts had been sent a few days ago to help support this system.
They had used it to down an ukrainian fighter jet already and one transport plane.
They simply mistook this jet for another.
American and US airlines had already been avoiding this airspace since the beginning of this year.
EVA says it will now detour to the south and CAL says it had stopped using this corridor for some months already.
Apparently it was not forbidden airspace and many airlines (possibly Asian and possibly even Mid eastern?) had still been using the air corridor. IN hindsight a mistake. And going forward no airline should ever cross an area in active war.
Imagine you worked for MA and had to deal with all the bereaved relatives from the last missing plane, and now this. Nightmare. I was just in Malaysia and people were already shunning the national airline.
As per SCMP:
154 Dutch
44 Malaysians
27 Australians
12 Indonesians
9 Britons
4 Germans
4 Belgians
3 Filipinos
1 Canadian
1 Hongkonger
38 yet unconfirmed
And 80 children among the passengers.
[quote]Unlike other Asian airlines, Malaysian Airlines did not reroute flights when Russian troops moved into Crimea earlier this year. From as early as the beginning of March, South Korea’s two main airlines, Korean Air and Asiana, as well as Australia’s Qantas and Taiwan’s China Airlines avoided Ukrainian air space.
Quizzed as to why Malaysia Airlines had not taken similar precautions, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said international air authorities had deemed the flight path secure.
“The aircraft’s flight route was declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. And (the) International Air Transportation Association has stated that the airspace the aircraft was traversing was not subject to restrictions,” he said.
Re-routing would have involved a longer flight-time and therefore higher fuel costs.
…
According to intercepted audio recordings from conversations between rebels shared by the New York Times, the jet just “fell apart in the air”.
In one phone call, pro-Russia separatist rebel commander Igor Bezler allegedly informed a Russian military intelligence official they had “just shot down a plane,” according to the recordings.
Bezler allegedly ordered his men to intercept the pilots of the stricken “smoking” jet.
One of the men concluded the plane was a civilian aircraft after stumbling across the remnants of internal brackets, seats and other “civilian items”, according to the recordings. The militants described seeing “lots of corpses of women and children”.
In the confusion one of the men said he had learnt from a television report that the downed jet was an AN-26 Ukrainian transport plane, but went on to say “but it has Malaysia Airlines logo on it.” He went on to question why it was flying in Ukrainian airspace.
The caller on the other end of the line concluded the plane was carrying spies. "They shouldn’t be [expletive] flying. There is a war going on,” he said.
[/quote]
And as to the air space around Ukraine, this is after the “crash”:
No Taiwanese on board? That means no media coverage after today.
Looking like the rebels did it, but the Russians are red faced because their advisors may have been advising and made the mistake of taking down a jetliner.
Holes lining up in the swiss cheese. Air traffic continuing where it should not have. Rebels with russkie advisors shooting down planes (and not knowing commercial traffic was still about).
Putin is busy trying to stem the bad PR.
Omaba is sitting quiet (even though reports are some two dozen Americans are on board, but I guess maybe they are not “real” Americans, but hyphenated ones so they matter less?).
But its good Omaba is not leading us to war over this though.
Looks to be a simple mistake of a couple of boffins f*cking things up royally.
Tragic comedy but pretty much true. It will be on page 12. But page one will be the latest Ma shenanigans. But thats the same over here too. Page one is all bout the current Prez.
It could have happened to an EVA airliner because EVA had been flying that route !!! Until this happened. IT was simply bad luck for MAS to be there.
IF it had, Taiwanese newsmen will be there on the ground sniffing the wreckage, talking to rebels.
one family in Australia lost people in both MH370 and MH17
sucks to be alive, ne?
[quote=“urodacus”]one family in Australia lost people in both MH370 and MH17
sucks to be alive, ne?[/quote]
Imagine that? What are the odds? Sad. Reports of over 80 children on board . A real tragedy.
One very very tiny bright spot. At least it is known what happened to this plane and not the other MAS jet, which relatives had to wonder for days and weeks if their loved ones were alive or not.
It could have happened to an EVA airliner because EVA had been flying that route !!! Until this happened. IT was simply bad luck for MAS to be there.
IF it had, Taiwanese newsmen will be there on the ground sniffing the wreckage, talking to rebels.[/quote]
As I mentioned, I was on that route with EVA just days before. Sadly those poor souls on board drew the short straw this time. There but for the grace…etc.
Life is very fragile thing. Enjoy it folks, whilst you can.