Malaysia Airlines plane shot down 7/17/14.
[Breaking news update at 5:08 p.m. ET Thursday]
The United States has concluded the Malaysian airline was shot down, a senior U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr. One radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft right before the plane went down Thursday, according to the official. A second system saw a heat signature at the time the airliner was hit, the official said. The United States is analyzing the trajectory of the missile to try to learn where the attack came from.
In other developments:
- "We must and we will find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone will be left unturned," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters. He called for an international team to have full access to the crash site. "If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice," he said.
- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that Ukraine's president accepted an offer of U.S. experts to investigate the crash of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner there, adding "they will be on their way rapidly to see if we can get to the bottom of this."
Biden said the plane was apparently shot down, adding "not an accident, blown out of the sky."
- Vice President of Malaysia Airlines Europe Huib Gorter told reporters that the 15 crew members on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were all Malaysian nationals. He gave a breakdown of the known nationalities of the 280 passengers: 154 were Dutch, 27 were Australians, 23 were Malaysians, 11 were Indonesian, six were from the United Kingdom, four were from Germany; four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines and one was Canadian. Authorities were still trying to determine the nationalities of the other passengers.
[Original story, posted at 4:05 p.m. ET Thursday]
Malaysia Airlines jet crashes in Ukraine; official says 295 people 'shot down'
(CNN) -- A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, prompting swift accusations from Ukrainian officials that "terrorists" shot down the aircraft.
The Boeing 777 carrying 295 people went down near the town of Torez in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to a Facebook post from a top Ukrainian official, as it flew at about 10,000 meters (nearly 33,000 feet) on the way from Amsterdam to Malaysia.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said in a Facebook post that "terrorists" fired on the plane operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the crash as a "terrorist action."
"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said, according to his website.
The crash sent emergency crews scrambling to what witnesses described as a staggering scene.
"People said the plane kind of exploded in the air, and that everything rained down in bits and pieces, the plane itself, the people inside," said Noah Sneider, an American freelance journalist who interviewed witnesses at the scene.
Now, charred wreckage stretches for kilometers, he said. Stunned rescue workers and rebel fighters are combing the area, Sneider said, planting sticks with white cotton ribbons where they find bodies in the fields.
"As you walk through the fields, you see a man with his cracked iPhone sticking out of his pocket. You see sort of people's clothing everywhere. Most of it's kind of ripped off by the air. There's some suitcases and stuff in a pile by the road," Sneider said.
[Breaking news update at 5:08 p.m. ET Thursday]
The United States has concluded the Malaysian airline was shot down, a senior U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr. One radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft right before the plane went down Thursday, according to the official. A second system saw a heat signature at the time the airliner was hit, the official said. The United States is analyzing the trajectory of the missile to try to learn where the attack came from.
In other developments:
- "We must and we will find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone will be left unturned," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters. He called for an international team to have full access to the crash site. "If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice," he said.
- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that Ukraine's president accepted an offer of U.S. experts to investigate the crash of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner there, adding "they will be on their way rapidly to see if we can get to the bottom of this."
Biden said the plane was apparently shot down, adding "not an accident, blown out of the sky."
- Vice President of Malaysia Airlines Europe Huib Gorter told reporters that the 15 crew members on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were all Malaysian nationals. He gave a breakdown of the known nationalities of the 280 passengers: 154 were Dutch, 27 were Australians, 23 were Malaysians, 11 were Indonesian, six were from the United Kingdom, four were from Germany; four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines and one was Canadian. Authorities were still trying to determine the nationalities of the other passengers.
[Original story, posted at 4:05 p.m. ET Thursday]
Malaysia Airlines jet crashes in Ukraine; official says 295 people 'shot down'
(CNN) -- A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, prompting swift accusations from Ukrainian officials that "terrorists" shot down the aircraft.
The Boeing 777 carrying 295 people went down near the town of Torez in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to a Facebook post from a top Ukrainian official, as it flew at about 10,000 meters (nearly 33,000 feet) on the way from Amsterdam to Malaysia.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said in a Facebook post that "terrorists" fired on the plane operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the crash as a "terrorist action."
"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said, according to his website.
The crash sent emergency crews scrambling to what witnesses described as a staggering scene.
"People said the plane kind of exploded in the air, and that everything rained down in bits and pieces, the plane itself, the people inside," said Noah Sneider, an American freelance journalist who interviewed witnesses at the scene.
Now, charred wreckage stretches for kilometers, he said. Stunned rescue workers and rebel fighters are combing the area, Sneider said, planting sticks with white cotton ribbons where they find bodies in the fields.
"As you walk through the fields, you see a man with his cracked iPhone sticking out of his pocket. You see sort of people's clothing everywhere. Most of it's kind of ripped off by the air. There's some suitcases and stuff in a pile by the road," Sneider said.
!!! The world we live in!!!
