THE tragic end to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 after it went down in Ukrainian airspace has shocked the world, and authorities are scrambling to ascertain if and who had shot down the aircraft as it flew the ICAO-approved route.
MH17 departed Amsterdam at 12.15 local time and the Boeing 777-operated flight was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 06.10 this morning, but MAS was notified by Ukrainian Air Traffic Control that the latter had lost contact with the aircraft at 14.15 GMT time, when the flight was approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
The smouldering remains of the aircraft were found near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, say international media reports. There are no known survivors.
Onboard were 298 people, including three infants and 15 crew members. The nationalities of 41 passengers remain unverified as of this morning. Confirmed on board were 154 Dutch passengers, 43 Malaysians including the crew of 15, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine from the UK, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and a Canadian.
In a release early this morning, MAS confirmed that the aircraft did not send a distress call, and ICAO had declared the route taken by MH17 as safe for travel. IATA had also stated that the airspace in question was not subject to restrictions.
MAS has since announced that all its European flights will be diverted to alternative routes.
The Malaysian flag carrier said it is “in the process of notifying the next-of-kin of the passengers and crew” and that “our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilise its full support to provide all possible care to the next-of-kin”.
Said Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in a statement today: “At this early stage, however, Malaysia is unable to verify the cause of this tragedy. But we must – and we will – find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone can be left unturned. If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice.”
Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists are trading blame for the tragic incident. Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has pledged a thorough and independent investigation in collaboration with Malaysian officials and will negotiated with the pro-Russian rebels to establish a humanitarian corridor to the crash site.
The International Business Times reports that the separatist rebels have agreed to a three-day ceasefire.
The catastrophe cements 2014 as an unfortunate year for MAS, coming four months after MAS flight MH370 went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 10, 2014).
