Malaysian Air Flight Crash at Ukraine Border

Horrible 60-character-limit caused that title. Sorry.

Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists (most likely) just shot down a plane and killed 295 civilians.

It has been (unofficially) confirmed:

Russian separatist leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, Igor "Strelkov" Girkin, posted this to Facebook shortly after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was recognized as having crashed over Ukraine:

To my understanding, it translates to:

Just shot down an AN-26 plane on Toreza area, crashed around the the Progress mine.

We warned them about flying in our sky.

And here's a video confirming another [plane] falling.

The [plane] fell past the territory, living sector was not hit.

Civilians were not hurt.

And there's also information about a second plane being shot down, looks to be a SU.

The wreckage of that same plane crash has the remnants of the exact Malaysian flight, as well as other evidence, such as the ticket.

Live coverage of the wreckage [NSFL; you will see dead people]: http://lifenews.ru/watch-live

Better coverage of the entire event: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/2ayjwz/malaysian_plane_crashes_over_the_ukraine/

Russia is fucked up, but I'm not entirely sure what anyone can do about it.

Maybe change the headline to not say that the Russian's did it?

Yeah, considering no government has confirmed it was shot down, let alone who by, you should probably change the misleading forum title.

Oh I wonder if this could start some kind of war that America could get involved in.

@playastation: I literally cannot think of a title that will fit the stupid 60-character limit. "Ukrainian" is longer than "Russian." So I can't say "Ukrainian separatists." And labeling them as "Ukrainian" would also be wrong. They fight "for Russia."

edit: okay, thought of a solution. "Separatist." Although now I have to figure out why my images disappeared.

edit2: okay, the mods did me one better.

Yeah. Edited the title to just generally say what is known to have happened - a passenger jet is down. As far as I know, nothing is official with regards to if it was shot down or who is responsible.

@lanerobertlane: No government has confirmed it, but if you look at my post it really couldn't be much else. There's a wreckage. We know what plane it is. Separatist leader boasts about destroying a "transport" soon after. Locals record wreckage, and... it's the same plane, complete with identical outside panels and passenger tickets. It's pretty clear.

Is this Alpha Protocol?

Why would a Kuala Lumpur to Bali flight be anywhere near Ukraine? Possible hijacking?

What a fucking mess. What a nightmare

Most likely their connecting-flight ticket after they got to Kuala Lumpur.

I wonder what our Ukrainian users thoughts are on this.

This whole situation is unbelievable. The implications it could possibly have if the Ukrainians shot it down, the even crazier implications it could have if it was the Russians, the fact that this comes just a few months after the MH370 incident and like a million other things.

And then of course there's the fact that 295 civilians are dead now, just like that. Fucking hell.

If this happened 30 years ago we'd all be shitting bricks.

Time for a ceasefire.

It would like to agree with the sentiment that the 60-character threat title limit is abysmal. Sometimes a topic is complex enough that an extra 20 or 30 characters in the thread title would make a world of difference. And damn near everybody has widescreen resolutions these days anyway, so I don't see the issue with longer thread titles.

I miss the Whiskey Media Radio Show, when I could've called in and just asked Dave why that sort of limitation exists.

How about 31?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007

I hope that my Malaysian friends are unaffected, I'm trying to contact them right now and it's like 3 AM over there. I lived in Malaysia for more than 4 years.

Condolences to those who are affected.

I'm very confused and sad about this right now.

And please refrain from making jokes, at least for now.

@euandewar: Well, I honestly don't know: do separatists of a country consider themselves to be of that same country? They support Russia, and are backed by Russia. I guess they are Ukrainian, though, yes.

Yeah, 1983 was terrifying. That, Able Archer, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

They were flying from Kuala Lumpur to Bali, it's the completely wrong direction.

But is there evidence that the plane was shot down? It could be the Separatist leader using the crash as an opportunity to boast about his movement's power.

They were flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Even more recently than flight 007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

I don't know either and I don't think anyone here can really answer that. I'm just using the simplest terms.

Yeah. You can look up the flight path of the flight and it very clearly stops right above Ukraine, coming from Amsterdam. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

I didn't think of that, but the way he worded it: "we warned them," makes me think he's legit.

Such sad news. I hope the nations involved don't over react and cause even more needless bloodshed. I wonder how these guys got that kind of weaponry?

@giantlizardking: I know accusations aren't the best thing in a time like this, but they probably got that weaponry from Russia to be perfectly honest.

People say it was a BUK missile system which is produced by Russia.

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buk_missile_system)

@virtualpolecat That was my initial thought. Man, as bad as tensions in that part of the world already are the last thing we need is the entire world pissed at Russia over what they consider to be some responsibility for this.

The bottom picture in the first post has a sentence in Dutch which reads: were this plane to vanish: this is what it looks like. It was meant as a joke.

I am Dutch and this is entire situation is terrible.

Dutch here too. Pure tragedy. The FB post especially is heartbreaking.

They recently deleted this tweet. Nothing is confirmed, but that's the twitter account of the same Donetsk People's Republic. Apparently other tweets were saying they "captured" and repaired the BUK stations (the missile tank in the picture).

@development: They were supposedly at a military airbase that they conquered. Still sources say that civilian airplanes have an unique transponder signal, as in it is a humongous fuck up to take it down by accident.

It feels like most news channels have turned in to North Korea mode and are just spouting the craziest theories. Now that the black boxes are in Pro-Russian separatist hands I fear that the truth may never come out.

@nictel: Well that exact mistake has been made before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

According to the Iranian government, Vincennes negligently shot down the civilian aircraft: the airliner was making IFFsquawks in Mode III (not Mode II used by Iranian military planes), a signal that identified it as a civilian craft, and operators of Vincennes mistook for Mode II.^[4]

According to the United States Government, the crew incorrectly identified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14 Tomcatfighter (a plane made in the United States and operated at that time by only two forces worldwide, the United States Navy and the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force).

@development: Ok if they can mistake an Airbus for a F14 then I guess mistaking a Boeing 777 for an AN-26 is also very possible.

@nictel: Yeah. I mean, I don't look at planes all day for a living, but these look similar enough to me:

Keep in mind the plane was at 33,000 feet. Probably hard to get a super precise visual read on it.

@development said:

@nictel: Yeah. I mean, I don't look at planes all day for a living, but these look similar enough to me:

Keep in mind the plane was at 33,000 feet. Probably hard to get a super precise visual read on it.

My only issue with that idea is that the top plane would sound very, very different from the bottom plane. The engines are completely different. Not to mention that the civilian plane would have a completely different transponder signal from any sort of military vehicle.

I'm concerned this was an inexperienced Russian Separatist (only due to the facebook posts in the OP) and that this will only escalate things even more, pulling the US and EU in further. Not to mention the Malaysia side, which could end up getting China involved, against Russia if anything, due to their close ties.

This Ukraine/Russia situation has been a powder keg waiting to explode for a while unfortunately and I'm concerned this might be what does it.

Such a terrible thing to happen. Thoughts and prayers to those affected. Feels extra weird for me since Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur is the flight route I very often take when I'm visiting my family in Indonesia. And to think that my sister and her family took a similar flight (albeit with different airline but very similar route) just a few days ago.

That was a great summary of what happened.

And now that a Russian special forces backed group of separatist fuckwads has shot down a civilian airplane, with 295 people on board, maybe something can be done?

Who am I kidding. Russia will deny all involvment, they already have the blackbox. They will delete, change and release data selectively. I fucking hate what they do, self centered pricks.

I'm sorry for the swearing but this makes me unbelievably mad. Think if Iran shot down a plane over Israel. There would be war.

But they will look with disbelief in their eyes, and lie through their teeth.

@mariachimacabre: Yeah, I don't know anything about planes, so perhaps they should've known the difference. Sounds like it might have been an inexperienced person, yes.

As far as this blowing the powder keg... I don't think so. The sad truth is that this will be forgotten by everyone fairly quickly.

Anyways, further "evidence":

Here's a seemingly legit video intercepted by Ukrainian forces, where 2 Russians realize the plane they shot down was in-fact civilian.

Israeli ground offensive. When it rains, it pours.

Heard about it earlier today, pretty messed up. I don't know the whole deal of mess that's going on over there at the moment, but this clearly doesn't help.

Read some accounts from civilians and reporters there they basiclly mentioned dead passengers falling with the depris most still intact but just badly broken and bruised. A terrible, horrible event today.

There's so much that boggles the mind at the stupidity all around this. The fact it's a Malaysian plane just like the one that flew to Australia to drown is like only a minor part of the story, somehow.

Then we have the fact that a passenger plane is flying over a part of the world that has already shot down a few planes/helicopters already.

It's a tragedy, but also a shit show.

Nationalities of the (verified) aboard the plane. To repeat what Johnny Chiodini said on Twitter: "Three infants aboard that Malaysian airlines flight. Three people died as a result of a conflict they weren’t even capable of knowing about."

@euandewar said:

Nationalities of the (verified) aboard the plane. To repeat what Johnny Chiodini said on Twitter: "Three infants aboard that Malaysian airlines flight. Three people died as a result of a conflict they weren’t even capable of knowing about."

45 Malaysians and 12 Indonesians.

They are probably on the way back to their countries to celebrate Eid al Fitr.

This is so fucking sad.

@sub_o said:

@euandewar said:

Nationalities of the (verified) aboard the plane. To repeat what Johnny Chiodini said on Twitter: "Three infants aboard that Malaysian airlines flight. Three people died as a result of a conflict they weren’t even capable of knowing about."

45 Malaysians and 12 Indonesians.

They are probably on the way back to their countries to celebrate Eid al Fitr.

This is so fucking sad.

108 of the passengers were also top AIDS researchers on their way to the large International AIDS Conference hosted in Australia. That includes Joep Lange, one of the prominent leaders of global HIV/AIDS research and former president of the International AIDS Society.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/delegates-to-melbourne-aids-summit-on-doomed-flight-mh17/story-e6frg6nf-1226993197572?nk=fc0f1baadac2d7252ea69fdb230f2b1f

Activist and journalist Sean Strub, who runs the New York based POZ magazine, said the conference was shaken by the tragedy and by Mr Lange’s death.

“It’s going to be a very sombre week,’’ he said. “The struggle with the epidemic is bigger than any one individual but the collective loss of so many important people is one that is emotional.”

@truthtellah said:

@sub_o said:

@euandewar said:

Nationalities of the (verified) aboard the plane. To repeat what Johnny Chiodini said on Twitter: "Three infants aboard that Malaysian airlines flight. Three people died as a result of a conflict they weren’t even capable of knowing about."

45 Malaysians and 12 Indonesians.

They are probably on the way back to their countries to celebrate Eid al Fitr.

This is so fucking sad.

108 of the passengers were also top AIDS researchers on their way to the large International AIDS Conference hosted in Australia. That includes Joep Lange, one of the prominent leaders of global HIV/AIDS research and former president of the International AIDS Society.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/delegates-to-melbourne-aids-summit-on-doomed-flight-mh17/story-e6frg6nf-1226993197572?nk=fc0f1baadac2d7252ea69fdb230f2b1f

Activist and journalist Sean Strub, who runs the New York based POZ magazine, said the conference was shaken by the tragedy and by Mr Lange’s death.

“It’s going to be a very sombre week,’’ he said. “The struggle with the epidemic is bigger than any one individual but the collective loss of so many important people is one that is emotional.”

Man, hearing more news about it today just makes it more and more horrible. Plus the fact that they were deflecting blame by saying that they warned not to fly over their territory?

This is not going to end well at all.