A Malaysian passenger jet yesterday crashed in Ukraine, killing all the 295 people on board. The dead were 280 passengers and 15 crewmembers. A Ukrainian Interior Ministry official accused pro-Russian militants of shooting down the plane over eastern Ukraine, which they denied.
Raising the stakes in the East-West showdown between Kiev and Moscow, the official blamed “terrorists” using a ground-to-air missile and Ukraine’s prime minister called the downing of the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur a “catastrophe”.
Reuters correspondent saw burning wreckage and bodies on the ground at the village of Grabovo, about 40km from the Russian border in an area where pro- Russian rebels have been active and have claimed to have shot down other aircraft.
The Boeing 777 came down near the city of Donetsk, stronghold of pro- Russian rebels, interior ministry official, Anton Gerashchenko, said on Facebook.
He added that it was “shot down with a Buk antiaircraft system by terrorists” – the term the Kiev government uses for militants seeking to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia.
Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed that it had lost contact with its flight MH-17 from Amsterdam. “The last known position was over Ukrainian air space,” it said.
A rebel leader said Ukrainian forces shot the airliner down. Ukrainian officials said their military was not involved.
Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet.
He also said it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, which can fire missiles up to an altitude of 72,000 feet.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said: “We do not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the armed forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets. We are sure that those who are guilty in this tragedy will be held responsible.”
It was the second time a Malaysia Airlines plane has been lost in less than six months.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found. Malaysian Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said there had been no confirmation that the plane was shot down, but he had instructed the country’s military to check and get confirmation.
Ukraine has accused Russia of taking an active role in the four-month-old conflict in recent days and accused it earlier yesterday of shooting down a Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet – an accusation that Moscow denied.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday at the Kremlin’s request, a conversation in which they briefly discussed the crash.
“During the call, President Putin noted the early reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russia- Ukraine border,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
The Kremlin also provided a readout on its website: “The Russian leader informed the US president of the report from air traffic controllers that the Malaysian plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory, which had arrived immediately before the phone call.”
The military commander of the rebels, a Russian named Igor Strelkov, had written on his social media page shortly before the report of the airliner being downed that his forces had brought down an Antonov An-26 in the same area. It is a turboprop transport plane of a type used by Ukraine’s forces.
The UK Department of Transport issued a statement stating: “Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region.” Pilots around the world are being advised to plan routes that avoid the area, it added.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is returning to The Netherlands from a summit in Brussels, Reuters reports.
In a statement, he said he was “deeply shocked” by reports of the crashed plane, which took off from the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, but added, “much is still unclear about the facts, circumstances and the passengers”.
The plane appeared to have broken up before impact, with the wreck scattered over a wide area in the village of Grabovo, AP reported. (Source:Nat'l Mirror)
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