Malaysia Airlines shot down by the Ruskies.

Whoops...

Terrible news. As soon as it broke I went to flightradar24 to review the flight but seems everyone else had the same idea as the website was down.

Just watching it on the news. Amazing.

I see neither the Ukraine or Russia are manning up and claiming responsibility for the shooting down of the Malaysian jet.

MANILA -- The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Friday that three Filipinos -- a mother, her son, and daughter -- were among the 298 passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that was shot down in Ukraine on Thursday.

The DFA identified the Filipino victims as Irene Gunawan, 54; Sherryl Shania Gunawan, 20; and Darryl Dwight Gunawan, 15.

DFA spokesman Charles Jose revealed that the residential address the Gunawans indicated in their passport application was in the Netherlands.

Netherlands: 154
Malaysia: 43 (including 15 crew and two infants)
Australia: 27
Indonesia: 12 (including one infant)
United Kingdom: 9
Germany: 4
Belgium: 4
Philippines: 3
Canada: 1
Unconfirmed nationalities: 41

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2014/07/18/pinay-ma-2-children-among-mh17-victims-354572

http://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/3...n-malaysia-plane-3-filipinos-among-passengers

I just read this on the BBC feed, unreal:-

An Australian couple, Irene Burrows and George Burrows, have lost family members in both of the Malaysia Airlines disasters this year. Their son and daughter-in-law (Rodney and Mary) went missing with flight MH370. Now they have lost more family members with MH17: their son-in-law's daughter and her husband, Maree and Albert Rizk

I am due to fly Malaysia Airlines myself on Tuesday, Penang to Phnom Penh via Kuala Lumpur.

Wish me luck!

Best of luck with that one Dave

Book a seat close to the comfort room.

I've always liked the saying "comfort room", much better than bogs, toilet, piss stones and so on

It is alarming to think how often civil airliners are shot down.

The sad thing is the Russians are already brushing this one under the carpet and absolutely not acknowledging any responsibility. Conflict or not it's scandalous.

This will need careful handling. Assuming that the plane was shot down, it will be necessary to identify the missile and we can be sure that all the traces of the missile that can be removed will have been removed already.

The site will have been "trashed" as thoroughly as possible.

Well, well, well ... there's some evidence to suggest that Malaysia Airlines flight MH017 was shot-down by Ukrainian military jets that had been escorting it as it crossed the country. This could be a highly cynical attempt on the part of the Ukrainian government to involve the EU and NATO in its conflict against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

The respected travel industry news organ "eTurboNews" (ETN) has the story:

There may be some credibility to this story as the pro-EU Ukrainian government is known to be rather upset by the lack of support the EU has provided. Apparently, Angela Merkel has repeatedly vetoed any action on the part of the EU for effective sanctions against Russia as Germany is heavily reliant on Russian gas supplies.

Pigs might fly, Mark, but that story won't. Given the level of "surveillance" of any contested airspace by the United States and its NATO allies, such an action would be insanely stupid, and any schoolboy can tell the difference between SAM fragments and the much smaller pieces of an air to air missile.

I'm sure you're absolutely right, Andrew, but the question remains: why did the two fighter escorts peel-off just three minutes before the 777 was shot down? Could it be that the Ukrainian military knew the separatists had Buk missiles in that region and ordered the fighter escorts to return lest they be targeted - in which case, why did they allow the civilian airliner to continue when it was obviously so dangerous?

The evidence that pro-Russian separatists committed this crime is mounting; a Buk missile launcher, minus one of its (four) missiles has reportedly crossed the border into Russia where it may well "disappear". One way or another, Putin has blood on his hands.

I see that OSCE investigators who visited the scene today were threatened by the separatists when they tried to examine and photograph the wreckage with warning shots fired over their heads. Sickeningly, the so-called commander of this bunch of thugs has issued a statement claiming that the flight was carrying the dead bodies of people who had died days before the flight departed Amsterdam. And their valuables, money and passports have been looted.

Our company, with global operations, has suspended the travelling by Malaysian airlines by its employees, on company business, untill further notice.

Maersk Line don't allow their staff to travel by ferry in the Philippines. And quite right too! But I won't think twice about MAS; good airline and good people. Its interesting that the two crashes have brought peaceable Malaysia into conflict with China and with Russia.

I agree with what Mark writes; it is sickening that this savagery is taking place in Europe.

I have no problems flying Malaysia,
they just made the wrong decision joining StarAlliance rather than Skyteam