Malaysian airline flight MH17 crashed near the russian border

There are no words... I'm just so so heartbroken :( My prayers are with all those on the airline and their families, despite everything I am still hoping for the best. I do not understand why a commercial airliner would be shot down (As all evidence seems to point to it not being an accident)... what a tragedy.

Oh how horrible. My thoughts are with the families of the passengers and the employees on the plane.

Why would this happen? Someone needs to cough up some answers.

What? Just what? It's horrible and such a tragedy. I feel for everyone involved. The families ... just my thoughts are with them. :(

Airline crashes are always such tragedies, so many dying all at once. For the sakes of everyone, I hope this turns out to be some kind of mechanical failure. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those aboard.

We don't yet know it was shot down. Right now there are just accusations and political bickering. We probably won't know for at least a week if its even possible that it was shot down.

Holy shit, what a horrible year for Malaysian airlines

It's awful. 295 people. All because 2 countries are too concerned about their own power and greed and soldiers were too trigger happy. I just.... I have no words.

Ahh, you're right, it hasn't been officially confirmed that it was shot down. But it would have to be one hell of a mechanical failure to cause such horrible wreckage if what we see in the pictures are true.

Part of me really hopes that it isn't a mechanical failure, I regularly take Malaysian airlines and they have always been really safe... I find it highly unlikely that this is an accident

Definitely. I mean this accident wasn't particularly their fault but their reputation is rock-bottom now. :/

It's really a tragic thing though, all that debris, no one alive. :(

This is absolutely horrible. All those poor people and their family. I'll pray for them :(

It is......Kind of feels like the airline has been targeted o_0;

Wow. Strange bout of events. First MH370 and then MH17. It does feel like the airline is being targeted. |D I feel bad for them, because I betcha more people are not going to want to travel with that airline. It's also strange how it crashed in the Ukraine. :l I'm not going to jump to conclusions that it was shot down. I think too many people make fast assumptions. Hopefully the investigation can stay objective. I can't imagine either Ukraine or Russia shooting down a passenger airliner. I just can't. Not because of all the feels, but because it's a stupid political move really.

I wonder when we'll figure out if it was shot down.

Something falling 33,000 feet from the sky is going to leave horrible wreckage no matter what caused it to crash.

There have been radar sightings that seem to indicate it might have been a missile - but we already know that radar sightings are inconclusive at best. How many times during the disappearance of the Malaysian flight 4 months ago did they say radar indicated something, then changed their minds.

No, the wreckage itself must be analyzed by crash experts who understand the forces involved and can say "this damage was caused by impact" or "that damage was caused by explosives" or whatever.

Also, mechanical failure doesn't necessarily mean a problem with the airline or its maintenance. It could a design flaw or a manufacturing error, or any number of other issues that have nothing to do with the airline.

There is definitely a possibility that it was shot down, either accidentally (because it was mistaken for a different aircraft), or as an act of terrorism, but there are many other possibilities as well. I really hope that investigators will get a chance to examine the wreckage safely and properly. Unfortunately, its in a war zone where everyone has their own agenda and few people want the truth - they want what's most politically expedient.

It will take a major mechanical error to simply make a plane plummet while cruising without any control or possibility of an emergency landing.

The only people who have stated that the plane was shot down was given by politicians, and these claims are to my knowledge still unproven. But I agree that this is a complicated situation at best. We need a through and impartial examination to determine what really happened.

Definitely! Now we just need for the politicians to work out safe passage for the investigators.

There's been some speculation that it was the Ukrainian government trying to target the Russian prime minister and they ended up shooting down the wrong plane though that's only speculation. It's been stated that Putin was coming back from a Brazilian summit and could of taken a similar flight path back to Russia though none of it has been confirmed.

Regardless, both Ukraine and Russia are stating they didn't shoot down the plane, but the only way to really figure out which side did is to check the plane wreckage itself and what remains of the missile if there was indeed a missile.

link

I'm from The Netherlands, and this is big news over here. 193 Dutchmen died in that crash. Everyone (in)directly knows someone who was in that plane; for me, three of my friends lost someone; a friend, a family member, and a teacher. My sister was supposed to take that plane (she got a scholarship, so she's studying in Melbourne for 7 months) but she decided to fly with Emirates instead. We are so, so glad she did! One of her friends also got the scholarship, and she did fly with MH17, one flight before the crash. So if she would've left a couple of hours later, she would now be dead.

Today was announced a national day of mourning, and at 4 in the afternoon there was a minute of silence throughout the whole country. Many people also paid their respects by watching the many hearses arriving from the airport: pic. This crash is absolutely heartbreaking, not only for the people who lost their lives, but especially for their friends, families and colleagues, and everyone else involved in the crash.

It has been stated that this was not an accident: A Russian separatist confessed shooting down the plane, a Ukrainian rebel leader confessed to owning BUK missiles, the plain wreckage shows damage that could've only been made by missiles, and there's also this video, posted by the New York Times, of audio of phone calls between rebels and Russian officers. (I've only got more links to articles in Dutch; here's a collective of articles by AD, in Dutch. Today only, 28 news articles about the flight have been released, and there's more information showing up every day.)

I think the plane was shot down, I just don't know who is to be held responsible for it, and if they will be held responsible. No one wants another war, especially not one involving, in any way, Russia.

I'm from Belgium, and we've been following the developments pretty close here too. The two stories that really got to me, were one of an entire Dutch family (parents and 4 kids), and the one with the (Australian, I think) grandpa and his 3 grandkids. That must be unbearable for those families... It's just so sad, that people who have nothing to do with the conflict in Ukraine, are the victims of such senseless violence. :(