NEWTOWN, Conn. - Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 with 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board has crashed in eastern Ukraine. It is unclear what caused the aircraft to go down, but officials in Kiev believe it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.
If in fact it was a missile, the implications that this will have on the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine will be tremendous. The only kind that would be capable of taking down a transport plane of that size would be a vehicle mounted system, not a shoulder fired missile. Although the Pro-Russian separatist groups have acquired advanced weaponry, they are not believed to have any vehicle mounted missiles.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says his military is not responsible. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry claims it was shot down with a 9K37 Buk surface-to-air missile system. There has been speculation that the Russian military stationed along the border may have fired the missile.
The Boeing 777 was on a standard flight path from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in the Donetsk region, just 50 kilometers (20 miles) from the Russian border.
You have 0 item(s) in your cart