Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash: Flight Shot Down Over Ukraine

This is a game changer.

Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash: Flight Shot Down Over Ukraine
The Huffington Post | By Eline Gordts
Posted: 07/17/2014 11:40 am EDT


Interfax news agency reports that a Malaysian jet has crashed in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. The Malaysian Airlines passenger plane had 295 people on board and was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, wrote on Facebook that the plane was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher over the country's east, the Associated Press reports.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed it had lost contact with flight MH17 and that its last position was over Ukrainian airspace.

A Russian aviation industry source told Reuters that the plane did not enter Russian airspace when expected.

Ukraine's east has seen heavy fighting between the country's military and separatists in recent days. Earlier on Thursday, the Ukrainian military claimed Russian jets had shot down a Ukrainian warplane late Wednesday night.

More from the Associated Press:

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian official said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday over a town in the east of the country, and Malaysian Airlines tweeted that it lost contact with one of its flights over Ukrainian airspace.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters (33,000 feet) when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday. The Buk missile system can fire missiles up to an altitude of 22,000 meters (72,000 feet).

Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed that it "has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow."

The region has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent days.

On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kiev says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet hit by the air-to-air missile was forced to bail after his jet was shot down.

Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the second jet was hit by a portable surface-to-air missile, but added the pilot was unscathed and managed to land his plane safely

Moscow denies Western charges that is supporting the separatists or sowing unrest in its neighbor. The Russian Defense Ministry couldn't be reached for comment Thursday about the Ukrainian jet and Russia's foreign ministry didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.

Earlier this week, Ukraine said a military transport plane was shot down Monday by a missile fired from Russian territory.

The rebels are known to possess portable anti-aircraft rocket launchers, but Ukrainian officials say that kind of weapon would have been unable to reach Monday's plane at the altitude at which it was flying Monday. Aviation experts, however, have questioned whether the stricken transport plane was flying at the altitude Ukrainian officials had claimed.

 

The only thing left to do is to figure out a way to blame Obama. I'm sure FOX is already working on it and Putin will remain blameless for arming the separatists. Typical.

 

I have heard nothing blaming your IOC from Fox, but if you look around here you will find a thread that predicted problems because of Obama's idiocies.

 

And there you have it.

 

Here is what we should do as a country but given the dysfunctional GOP, we won't. We should rally our European allies and the rest of the world to come down hard on Russia economically, publicly, and with one voice. Russia should pay a high price for this heinous act of brutality.

But what we will see is the Right wing blaming Obama, the European counties waffling on mild sanctions, and the rest of the world uninterested in doing anything especially China. Anyone wanna bet?

 

Obama: Hey Vlad? Turn over the black box now or climb inside of it.
Vlad: **GULP**

 

Why the hell do you care what happens in Ukraine? You've previously said we have no interest there, so why involve ourselves?

 

All I actually said that we are not allies with Ukraine nor are they a NATO country we are obligated to protect militarily. What I don't want is for us to fight another proxy war with Russia with Ukrainian lives. This is actually more of a consequence for Europe than the US. We have been working on the European countries to come down harder on Russia but they have not been willing to because they have all kinds of economic ties to Russia. Maybe the lack of putting their money where their mouth is came home to bite them in the ass. We have been right all along. Europe has been afraid to act.

 

Fair enough. So, who is this a "game-changer" for? The U.S.? Europe? Russia? We haven't involved ourselves in Ukraine in the slightest and I don't think this episode will change our stance. I don't think the European powers will involve themselves either. So, who is it a game-changer for?

 

I don't know if they'll ever get around to that, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Meanwhile, Todd Starnes, one of the gaggle of nitwitted Fox talking heads jumped right in on Twitter:




Apparently that was a little too much for Ms. Van Susteren: "Greta Slams Fox Colleague Todd Starnes for ‘Pathetic’ Tweets on MH17 Crash" | Mediaite

 

Now Putin has to hear from angry Malaysians.

Not that he'll give a @#$%, but any good-will he had before, for assets put into the missing flight, is now gone.

Also, if I were Obama, I'd send Putin a ticket on a future Malaysian flight.

 

Yes,yes,and yes. It will bring the European countries closer to our position changing the game for both sides and then ultimately for Russia. Well, ideally but it's not like this is the first time a civilian airliner has been shot down by Russia, or the U.S. Navy, or Ukraine and it almost always turns out to be a mistake after the initial denials.

 

That remains to be seen, but somehow I doubt your scenario. In the meantime, however:

By: Guy Benson (TownHall)

And now, a short, tweet-based summary of our Commander-in-Chief's actions in the immediate aftermath of today's developing disaster in Ukraine:



One ought not fault the president for the brevity of his remarks in the earliest hours of a confusing and fluid crisis. But hundreds of deaths as a result of a (likely deliberately) downed airliner "may" be a terrible tragedy? An NBC analyst ripped the State Department for lagging far behind news reports of 23 American casualties. Minutes later, president said the government was still attempting to determine if any US citizens were aboard. At which point, he quickly pivoted and launched into his regularly-scheduled speech on the pressing need for more domestic spending on infrastructure:

Even the some of the president's ideological brethren were deeply unimpressed with today's performance:


​

 

... and, of course, this:

Kate Obenshain: Obama ‘Ordering Burgers Medium-Well While World is Falling Apart’

President Barack Obama is in New York City tonight to attend two fundraisers despite the Malaysia Airlines tragedy and Israel incursion of Gaza.

In the past five-and-a-half years, Obama has attended 395 fundraisers. Former President George W. Bush attended 338 in his eight years in office.

Kate Obenshain and James Carville discussed his decision to fundraise tonight on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

On top of the fundraising, Obenshain said Obama gave 40 seconds to the crash today during an address, then proceeded to launch into jokes. She also mentioned his photo op at the Charcoal Pit, a restaurant.

“President Obama is glad-handing, ordering burgers medium well while the world, frankly, is falling apart in other regions, and it’s a stunning thing. Either he’s tone deaf or as you said he just doesn’t care,” she said.

Carville said he doesn’t think it’s a problem that Obama is raising money tonight, but Bill O’Reilly commented that he wouldn’t be at a fundraiser tonight if he were the president.

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/07/1...urgers-medium-well-while-world-falling-apart’

 

EXCLUSIVE Transcript of President Obama’s Call With Vladimir Putin


The Washington Free Beacon has obtained an exclusive transcript of President Obama’s brief phone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin regarding the Malaysian Airline plane reportedly shot down in eastern Ukraine. The president ate lunch at the Charcoal Pit ahead of an infrastructure speech in Wilmington, Delaware.

BARACK OBAMA: Hello!

VLADIMIR PUTIN: It’s Vlad.

BO: [Sigh] Can you make it quick? Got lunch in five, tight schedule.

VP: What are you having?

BO: We’re here at the Charcoal Pit. Gonna try the Famous Pit Chili Nachos.

VP: I heard about your new sanctions.

BO: Yeah, well I’m very concerned about—

VP: Did you hear about that plane in Ukraine?

BO: Yeah, yeah, I just found out on Twitter. Listen, can we—

VP: A real shame about that plane.

BO: Yep, real shame. Gotta go, Vlad. Talk soon!

[Unidentified voice: "The bear is loose!"]

[Sound of high fives being given]

UPDATE: After lunch, Obama told a crowd of supporters that the plane crash “looks like it may be a terrible tragedy.” He added: ”God Bless you, let’s build some bridges, let’s build some roads!”

http://freebeacon.com/editors-blog/
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Mmmmmmmmm... Famous Pit Chili Nachos!

 

https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/489820519701942272

 

Of course this about Obama's "failure" and not the victims or the perpetrators. Reagan was on vacation when the Russians intentional shot down a Korean airliner with an American congressmen aboard and didn't even both making a statement until a few days later under pressure. When Reagan finally addressed the issue, he said that no country shoots down passenger planes but low and behold 5 years later under president Reagan the U.S. Navy shot down a passenger plane off the coast of Iran. Maybe they were in "our" airspace? Dunno, but I do know that there is no reason to shoot down a commercial airliner but mistakes happen and we usually do not blow these incidences out of proportion. Not excusing anyone but this is just going to happen from time to time and anyone with the ability to shot down an aircraft will probably make the same mistake one day.

 

Because a non-Ukrainian airliner on a regularly scheduled flight and having a multi-national passenger list of some 240 people was shot down over that country by someone in that country? Do you think that just maybe this might be why? Apparently you consider this a strictly strictly Ukrainian issue, internal to that country and of no interest to anyone who thinks that our strategic interest in that country is limited. Try to make some sense at least some of the time. Your relentless focus on personality whether it be that of Obama or JoeNation makes you look silly more often than not.

 

I don't mind him focusing on me. I just don't bite. Coin can be reasonable from time to time but he usually prefers the fight. I will however correct his mischaracterizations of my words. I simply do not allow people to put their biases in my mouth. Go ahead and have your biases just don't twist my words into your paranoia is all I ask of them.

 

Well, certainly, as JoeNation has previously stated, we have no strategic interest in Ukraine. In other words, as far as the U.S. is concerned, no interest. He previously said that Ukraine should get pissed off enough that they start a terrorist campaign against Russia. Other than thanking our lucky stars that Little Joe is not with our diplomatic corps, I bet we would certainly have a strategic interest in Ukraine at that point. But, that's a separate argument.

So, other than as a humanitarian concern, how does this airline incident become a "game-changer"? And how exactly does he think the game will change? Air strikes? Ground forces? Espionage? Political assassinations? Supply blockades? Walls (ala the Berlin Wall)? Chemical warfare?