Posted on 07/17/2014 10:54:40 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
A Ukrainian official said Thursday that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a passenger jet traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down near Snizhe today, a town close to the Ukrainian-Russian border. The plane was carrying 295 people and crashed early evening, local time.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but immediate reports say that the airplane was grounded by a BUK surface-to-air missile system. The BUK, developed by the Soviet Union in 1979, has remained widely in use throughout the former Soviet states, including Ukraine.
General Philip Breedlove, the commander of the U.S. European Command, said that Moscow has been supplying Ukrainian separatists with anti-aircraft weaponry, and has held training sessions along the eastern Ukrainian border, teaching rebels how to operate the systems.
Direct supply of the BUK from Moscow to rebels would be a major escalation in the ongoing conflict. However, on June 29, Russia's official news agency, ITAR-TASS, reported that pro-Russian separatists took a BUK system under their control. The report does not specify whether or not this was theft from the Russian or Ukrainian militaries, only that the rebels had seized control of the weapons system. An AP report, dated yesterday, noted that, “A launcher similar to the BUK missile system was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne, which is held by pro-Russia rebels, earlier Thursday.”
Initial reports say that the plane was shot down at a cruise altitude of 32,800 feet. MANPADS, shoulder-mounted weapons systems, are incapable of reaching that altitude, suggesting that a ground-based system like BUK was used. BUK can hit planes at altitudes up to 72,000 feet.
According to the Interfax news agency, leaders of the self-declared independent People’s Republic of Donetsk refuted allegations of involvement, claiming their weapons cannot shoot down planes flying above 10,000 feet. A member of the Republic’s security council declared the Ukrainian military responsible for the attack.
But at the same time as the Malaysian Airlines jetliner went down, Radio Free Europe reported, Ukrainian rebel leader Igor Strelkov announced on Russian social networking site VKontakte that a Ukrainian transport plane had been shot down: "In the vicinity of Torez, we just downed a plane, an AN-26.... We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace. We have video confirming. The bird fell on a waste heap. Residential areas were not hit. Civilians were not injured." Strelkov linked to two videos, reportedly of the downed airplane. After news broke that the Malaysian Airlines plane had gone down, he deleted the post about the AN-26.
This incident comes a day after Russia fired its first missiles into Ukraine and the White House laid a new round of sanctions on Russian authorities. President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone earlier today about the sanctions; Reuters reported that Putin briefly mentioned the crash near the end of the phone call.
During a television interview immediately following the crash, Senator John McCain said, “I’m not concluding, but it has the earmarks of a mistaken identification of an aircraft they believed was Ukrainian.” He added, “If it is a result of either separatists or Russian actions mistakenly believing that this was a Ukrainian warplane, I think there’s going to be hell to pay and there should be."
Over the past few days, rebels have shot down two Ukrainian military planes flying at high altitudes. Immediately following the crash, Strelkov wrote on VKontakte, in a post that has now been deleted: “We warned them not to fly in ‘our sky.’”
Amazon.com?
But the shipping cost is a killer.
I hope someone grabbed the post & videos.
Looks like the rebels are the prime suspects.
Sepratists captured a military base. Besides , Russia is right there on the border with plenty of fire power.
“Amazon.com? But the shipping cost is a killer.”
I’m a Prime Member so I get my BUK’s for free 2-day shipping! Yay.
If indeed the Russian militants are on the site sweeping for evidence, you can bet that evidence tying them to the missile will go the way of Lois Lerner’s hard drive. Lois...pick up the white phone,...you’re needed in Donetsk.
It’s kind of believable that the separatist were given a crash course on operational use and this cause them to miss their intended target and hit the 777 instead.
the aircraft was at 32,000 feet when it crashed.
Actually it was at sea level when it crashed
“But at the same time as the Malaysian Airlines jetliner went down, Radio Free Europe reported, Ukrainian rebel leader Igor Strelkov announced on Russian social networking site VKontakte that a Ukrainian transport plane had been shot down: “In the vicinity of Torez, we just downed a plane, an AN-26.... We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace. We have video confirming. The bird fell on a waste heap. Residential areas were not hit. Civilians were not injured.” Strelkov linked to two videos, reportedly of the downed airplane. After news broke that the Malaysian Airlines plane had gone down, he deleted the post about the AN-26.”
You can’t fix stupid!!!
ground level
“But at the same time as the Malaysian Airlines jetliner went down, Radio Free Europe reported, Ukrainian rebel leader Igor Strelkov announced on Russian social networking site VKontakte that a Ukrainian transport plane had been shot down: “In the vicinity of Torez, we just downed a plane, an AN-26.... We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace. We have video confirming. The bird fell on a waste heap. Residential areas were not hit. Civilians were not injured.” Strelkov linked to two videos, reportedly of the downed airplane. After news broke that the Malaysian Airlines plane had gone down, he deleted the post about the AN-26.”
DOH!!!
“Actually it was at sea level when it crashed”
Quick on the uptake, aren’t you. lol
They just murdered 295 noncombatant foreigners for absolutely no reason at all, besides their own bloodlust and incompetence.
Given the real time nature of the reporting, their propaganda machine was unable to get its story "straight" in time.
I believe it went in the ocean,sea level
“I hope someone grabbed the post & videos.”
If you hurry and look the video is currently all over YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5azflHhZJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhVt0_dyWOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjIDk32sw1I
I suspect Mr. Strelkov is about to get a one-way ticket to The Lubyanka.
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