Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 reportedly shot down near Ukraine-Russia border

(CBC News) – A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board was shot down near the border of Ukraine and Russia, where witnesses say dozens of bodies are scattered around the wreckage, according to a number of reports.

Reuters reported that one of its correspondents in eastern Ukraine saw the burning wreckage of an airplane Thursday, with bodies on the ground. Meanwhile, an emergency services rescue worker said at least 100 bodies had been found at the scene, near the village of Grabavo. Grabavo is in the eastern province of Donetsk, which is under the control of pro-Russia separatists and has been the site of severe fighting between rebels and the government for several months.

Witnesses reported debris from the wreckage was strewn about.

“Horrified by reports of a Malaysian Airlines plane crashing near the #Ukraine/#Russia border,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird tweeted. “We are following the situation very closely.”

U.S. President Barack Obama said the world was watching reports of a downed passenger jet near
the Russia-Ukraine border and that “It looks like it might be a terrible tragedy.”

The Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members, was shot down at an altitude of 10,000 metres above Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian bureau of the Russia-based news agency Interfax reported. The Boeing plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

“Everything I’ve seen so far ties directly with this aircraft being feasibly shot down by a surface-to-air missile,” Jock Williams, retired Canadian military pilot and former Transport Canada flight safety officer and artillery expert, told CBC News on Thursday afternoon.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says his country’s armed forces did not shoot at any airborne targets.

“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,” he said.

The Associated Press reported that Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres when it was hit Thursday by a missile fired from a Buk launcher.

Separatist leader Andrei Purgin told the news agency that he was certain that Ukrainian troops had shot the plane down but gave no explanation or proof for his statement. He said he did not know whether rebel forces owned Buk missile launchers but said even if they did, they had no fighters capable of operating them.

2nd Malaysia plane mishap in 5 months

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday that Russia did not shoot down the Ukrainian fighter jet on Wednesday. “We didn’t do it,” Churkin said.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 at 10 a.m. ET around 30 kilometres from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50 kilometres from the Russia-Ukraine border.

This is the second incident in less than five months involving a Malaysia Airlines plane. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared in March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search for the wreckage of the plane has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean far west of Australia.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said on Twitter there’s no confirmation that Thursday’s plane was shot down. He said he has instructed the country’s military to check and get confirmation.

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.

A number of airlines said they will avoid the airspace of Eastern Ukraine following the incident.

Angela Mah, a spokeswoman for Air Canada, said the airline had been “proactively” avoiding that airspace for some time.

“We do not foresee any impact on our passengers,” she said in an email to CBC.

Arthur Rosenberg, an American lawyer who specializes in aviation cases, told CBC News that the U.S. had already issued a notice to pilots and airplanes to stay away from the area because it’s incredibly dangerous.

He said that just days ago, one of the leaders of the pro-separatist movement in the Ukraine took responsibility for shooting down a Ukrainian transport aircraft and had issued a warning to stay out of their airspace.

“That was a very foreboding warning which apparently was not heeded — I hate to point the finger at this point — by Malaysian Airlines. Bottom line is good God, what were they doing in that airspace? It makes absolutely no sense.”

Williams said if a missile did shoot down the plane, the missile would have had 50 to 100 pounds of explosive charge and would be an effective type of warhead that would tear a plane apart.

“So, the plane could be virtually disintegrated in the air, or it could have been able to at least attempt to glide in and land with some control — perhaps not full control — but some control,” he said.