Malaysian Airliner Shot Down Over Ukraine
July 18, 2014
Tension in eastern Europe escalated dramatically yesterday when a Malaysian commercial airliner carrying 298 people crashed in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. Flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, crossing Ukrainian airspace at an altitude of around 33,000 feet (10,000 meters). Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had evidence that MH17 had been struck by a ground-to-air missile.
A Malaysian commercial airliner is believed to have been shot down in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine yesterday (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.).
The witness accounts of the crash bear out a missile attack. Witnesses state they heard explosions and saw the plane break apart while it was still in the air. Debris and bodies are scattered on the ground over several miles.
Weapons experts noted that the altitude at which flight MH17 was operating seemed to rule out the possibility that the plane had been hit by a missile fired from a hand-held launcher. Such devices have a range of about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Beyond that range, a missile that can shoot a jet out of the air must be much more sophisticated. Military experts felt the most likely candidate for the downing of the Malaysian plane was the Russian SA-11. Such a weapon, however, requires several vehicles for the launch and radar trajectory and highly trained personnel.
Flight MH17 is the third plane this week shot down over eastern Ukraine. On July 14, a Ukrainian military transport plane flying at 21,000 feet (6,400 meters) was hit by a missile; two of the crew members died. On July 16, pro-Russian separatists (or perhaps Russian armed forces) are believed to have shot down a Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet also flying at a high altitude; the pilot ejected to safety.
All three instances this week led to the conclusion that it was weapons supplied by Russia to pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine that were used to shoot down the Malaysian airliner. U.S. President Barack Obama today stated that the pro-Russian rebels most experts believed to be responsible for the tragedy would be unable to take such an action “without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”
No passengers survived the crash; more than half of the flight’s passengers were from the Netherlands. A number of passengers on the flight were AIDS activists and researchers traveling to a conference on the subject in Melbourne, Australia, including a famous Dutch scientist, AIDS researcher Joep Lange.
Additional World Book articles:
- In Poland, President Obama Affirms U.S. Committment to European Security (Behind the Headlines)
- Ukrainian Forces Attempt to Retake Control in East (Behind the Headlines)
