Apparently, the Ukrainian separatists just shot down a MAS flight to Amsterdam…
yea… and Putin may have supplied them with the missile.
^ if that’s true, we’ll see if the EU or US decides to wade further into the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
It’s pretty clear that the Russians are supplying the rebels with weapons. Otherwise, not sure how the rebels could shoot down a 777 at cruising altitude… Allegedly, the Russian special forces went undercover and helped precipitate the rebellion in the first place. Those guys are super sketchy.
putin called obama earlier this morning
one thing we know for sure. russian markets will have another tanking
So why a MAS flight from Holland? Why not something that would have a greater local impact? I don’t have a clue.
Because the separatists are not real military and f’d up and shot down the wrong plane.
CNN has material for the next 3 months now. Also, Malaysia Air is going to catch even more sh!t since I have to think there is some protocol about flying over what is essentially a warzone.
Oops. Tough to believe. Takes a little skill to operate the launcher. Would think flight identification would not be an issue.
ABC just announced black boxes are found, and are being turned over to the russians.
right… i’m sure that’s the best thing to do…
Not really apparently. Virgin, Lufthansa and Air France only adjusted their flight plans after the incident. Reportedly only KLM had previously decided to avoid the area. Its a common flight path between Europe and South East Asia. But the diversion costs 15 mins of fuel so MAS and the other decided to roll the dice with their passengers. MAS had the misfortune of the bad roll. That said, if Russian supplied separatists did this, then it calls for immediate action. This flight originated in the Netherlands. That’s a NATO country. We have a mutual defense agreement for such things. We should be able to fly internationally without concern of being shot down.
I think the crash site is in the rebel controlled area so presumably the rebels believe Russia controls the area. I doubt the boxes will provide much. A missile strike isn’t going to be something the boxes will provide much insight on. I doubt the pilots even knew what was coming.
Will help in confirming it was actually a missile. Helped in the past.
WTF is going on in the world?
Can’t we all just get along?
It would help in ruling out other issues, but to my non-expert knowledge I don’t think there is any missile attack indicator. Probably just an explosion and immediate crash. Apparently the US has satellite assets that track SAM launches and would be able to pinpoint the source of this attack very quickly (according to an “expert” on BBC). I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama doesn’t already know where this came from. Same probably goes for the Russians I’d assume.
poor people, they weren’t even in the fight. THey probably didn’t even know they’d be flying over a war zone.
Cruising altitude is over 30,000 ft. You can’t hit a moving object at that rate with low level AA tech.
Our generation’s Franz Ferdinand?
^ Hopefully not a Franz. But you’re right, this wasn’t a drunk rebel with a shoulder launched rocket. At >30k feet, this was a high tech SAM launch done from a complex system. That requires some premeditation and coordination. Again, according to experts as I’ve been following this. I am no expert.
The question now becomes, how many people here are wondering what an indie band from Scotland has to do with a plane being shot down?
China won’t be impressed with this, being a Malaysian airliner. Russia has jeopardised a key relationship here (assuming this was the Russians). I’m not sure Russia has enough friends in the world for this escalation to really be a Franz Ferdinand moment.
I wouldn’t even want it to escalate. Russia alone (while depleted) can still put up a decent fight. You think those Ivans aren’t itching for a good pow-wow? Just spin the right tale and they’d be heading to the nearest staging area.
All it takes is the brink of defeat and NATO on the outskirts of Moscow for Putin to say “” and push the little red button.
At this point its not about who wins, it’s about who is going to lose the most.