BREAKING NEWS
The aviation industry is in shock tonight after the news
breaks of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 crashing in Eastern Ukraine. The
flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was carrying 296 passengers and crew and
is believed to have been shot down by a ground to air missile – however this
has yet to be confirmed.
Official information is extremely limited and most of the
information available coming from unconfirmed sources and social media. Flight MH17 was approximately 50 kilometres
from entering Russian airspace when it came down with what appears to be the
loss of all souls on-board.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said the aircraft
would have been shot down, "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," he said in a statement. Later he said this was not an accident but “An
act of terrorism.”
Dozens and dozens of bodies were scattered around the
smouldering wreckage of the plane, close to the village of Grabovo, some 25 miles from the Russian border, according to
reporters at the scene. Grabovo is in an area controlled by the Russian separatists
who have been known to shoot down Ukrainian military aircraft. Unconfirmed
reports advise that moments after the incident a tweet from a twitter account
previously used to publicize Russian Separatists shooting down Ukrainian military
aircraft, claimed it had shot down another military transporter.
It's believed that there were 8 Britons on the downed aircraft, however this has yet to be confirmed as the passenger manifest has not been publically released at this time. Other unconfirmed reports state as many as 20 could you US citizens with the majority of the rest mixed between Malaysian and Dutch.
Emergency workers at the scene of the incident commented
that at least 100 bodies had been found so far, with wreckage scattered across
a wide area, "I was working in the
field on my tractor when I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang and
shots. Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick
black smoke," a witness, named only as Vladimir, told a Reuters reporter
close the area.
On a tweet and in a statement, Malaysia Airlines confirmed
that Ukraine's air traffic control lost contact with flight MH17 at 2.15pm GMT,
approximately 30 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. Flight MH17 codeshare
flight with Dutch carrier KLM was operated on a Malaysian Boeing 777 and
departed Amsterdam at 12.15pm [local] and was estimated to arrive at Kuala
Lumpur International Airport at 6.10am the next day. The flight was carrying
280 passengers and 15 crew onboard."
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior
minister commented on social media that the plane had crashed in Ukrainian
territory after being hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. News agency Associated Press advised one of
its journalists had seen a similar launcher near the town of Snizhne earlier on
Thursday.
So far the leaders of the self-declared Donetsk people's republic
denied any involvement and according to a Russian news agency Russian Separatists
may also have retrieved and are holding the black boxes of the aircraft.
Emergency workers have been reported as saying that armed separatists are
hampering and interfering with any rescue attempts.
"This is the third tragic incident in recent days after
Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 jets were shot down from Russian territory.
We don't rule out that this plane was also shot down, and we stress that the
Ukrainian military didn't take any actions to destroy targets in the air,"
said Ukrainian President.
Speaking in Delaware USA, President Barack Obama said his
administration was seeking "to determine whether there were American citizens
onboard. That is our priority. And I've
directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian
government. The United States will offer any assistance we can to help
determine what happened and why. As a country our thoughts and prayers are with
all the families of the passengers, wherever they call home."
Earlier, Obama and Russian leader Putin spoke on the phone
regarding new US sanctions imposed on Moscow over its alleged failure to halt
the flow of weapons and fighters to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations are ‘tense’ at the moment and if
it process that MH17 was shot down by Russian made and supplied missiles
relations will be pushed to breaking point.
Several airlines, including British Airways, Virgin, Aeroflot,
Turkish Airlines and Russia's Transaereo airlines have all announced they would
avoid Ukrainian airspace with immediate effect. German airline Lufthansa
confirmed it would steer clear of airspace over eastern Ukraine.
The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, said via Twitter:
"I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an
immediate investigation." The
country's defence minister tweeted that he was "monitoring closely"
claims that MH17 had crashed, saying: "No comfirmation [sic] it was shot
down! Our military have been instructed 2 get on it!"
