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Pro-Russian Separatists Shoot Down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 In East Ukraine Killing All Onboard

 
 

July 20, 2014 - On Thursday, Malaysia Airlines, Flight 17 (MH17) with 282 passengers and a flight crew of 15 crashed killing all onboard after being shot down at 33,000 feet by a Soviet made medium range BUK surface-to-air missile.

The Boeing 777-200 with registration tail number 9M-MRD crashed about 10:00 AM EDT near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, approximately 25 miles from the Ukrainian border with Russia. There was one American onboard.

Flight 17 was a scheduled international passenger flight that had departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam at about 12:30 PM CEST for Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called it an "act of terrorism.

Vice President Joe Biden said a Malaysian Airlines flight was “apparently” shot down Thursday in eastern Ukraine. “I say ‘apparently’ because we don’t actually have all the details. I want to be sure of what I say. Apparently, have been shot down. Shot down, not an accident. Blown out of the sky.”

 
Following the downing of Flight 17, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a Notice to Airman (NOTAM) prohibiting U.S. flight operations until further notice, in the airspace over eastern Ukraine, due to recent events and the potential for continued hazardous activities. The restricted area includes the entire Simferopol and Dnepropetrovsk flight information regions (FIRs).
 

 

This action expands a prohibition of U.S. flight operations issued by the FAA in April, over the Crimean region of Ukraine and adjacent areas of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.  No scheduled U.S. airlines are currently flying routes through this airspace.

The Pentagon said on Friday it is unlikely that pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine could obtain or operate the sophisticated missile system allegedly used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 without Russian help. A senior military official reported a U.S. radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on the flight path of Flight 17 right before the jet went down and a second system saw a heat signature, which would indicate a missile rising from the ground into the air at the time the airliner was hit.

Ukraine's intelligence agency reported it had intercepted phone calls from Ukrainian separatists in the country's east of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 plane crash. Ukraine's state security agency (S.B.U.) released an edited version of audio tapes between separatist rebels and Russian military intelligence to the news media. S.B.U. has identified the callers in one part of the conversation as rebel commander Igor Bezler and Russian intelligence official Vasili Geranin.

Igor Bezler is a pro-Russian leader whose group is currently controlling the local police department in Horlivka which is a city in the Donetsk Oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine claims that until 2002 Bezler served in detachments of the Russian General Staff GRU retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Bezler - "Just now, just now, plane has been shot down. Group Minera. It fell down beyond Yenakievo.
Geranin - Pilots? Where are the pilots?
Bezler – Set off to search for the shot down plane and take the pictures of it. A plume of smoke is visible.  
Geranin – How many minutes ago?
(After inspecting the scene of the plane crash it is clear they shot down a civilian aircraft)

 

It Is Believed This BUK Surface-To-Air Missile Launcher Was The Missile Launcher That Brought Down Flight 17. It Was Loaded On A Flatbed Truck And Made Its Getaway Back To Russia.

Bezler  – About 30 minutes ago.
Grek    – Yes Major.
Major  – So that were those from Chernukhinsk who shot down the plane. From Chernukhin check point, cossacs that are nearby Chernukhino. The plane broke into pieces in the air, close to Petropavlovskaya mine. There is the first two hundredth (death), we have found the first tow hundredth. It’s a civilian.
Grek – How are things going there?
Major – Well we are 100 percent sure that it was a civilian plane.
Grek – Are there a lot of people?
Major – F..ck! The debris was falling straight into the yards.
Grek – What plane is that?
Major – I havn’t figured out yet. I haven’t got close to the main wreckage. Now I’m nearby the place where first bodies started falling. Here are remnants of internal brackets, chairs, bodies.
Grek – Are there any weapons?
Major – Nothing at all. Civilian belongings, medical scraps, towels, toilet paper.
Grek – Are there any documents
Major – Yes. One belonging to a student from Indonesia. From Thompson University.
Militant – On TV they say like it is a Ukrainian AN-26, a transport plane. But the writing says Malaysian Airlines. What was it doing over the territory of Ukraine.
Kozitsyn – Well then it was bringing spies. Why the hell were they flying? This is war going on.

Malaysia Airlines Media Statement - With immediate effect, all European flights operated by Malaysia Airlines will be taking alternative routes avoiding the usual route. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur went down in eastern Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines confirms that the aircraft did not make a distress call. The usual flight route was earlier declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organization. International Air Transportation Association has stated that the airspace the aircraft was traversing was not subject to restrictions.

As a result of Russia and Ukraine war over the control of the Crimean Peninsula and the number of planes that have been shot down the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced on Friday that the airspace over Donetsk, Luhansk and part of Kharkiv where rebels are operating had been closed indefinitely. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said he is "deeply concerned" that the crash site is being tampered with. It has been reported that the personal effects of the passengers have been rummaged through and taken by the Russian-backed separatists. It is also been reported that the aircraft’s data and cockpit voice recorders have been located by the separatist and turned over to Russia.

 
 
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