MH17 crash wakes up the world

 

Ukraines government and pro-Russian insurgents traded blame for the disaster, with comments attributed to a rebel commander suggesting his men may have downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by mistake, believing it was a Ukrainian army transport plane. 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko believes a "terrorist act" was the cause of a Malaysian airlines passenger plane crashing on Thursday, his press secretary said. "Poroshenko thinks this of the plane that was brought down: it is not an incident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act," press secretary Svatoslav Tsegolko said.

US President Barack Obama vowed to assist Malaysia in finding out what caused the crash. Dutch Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten hosted a press conference shortly after the incident.

Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak was seen at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport around 1am, for meetings with officials before the press conference hours later.

Several airlines have diverted their flight to avoid the Ukraine airspace. 

Singapore Airlines announced through its Twitter account that it will not use the airspace. 

Russia's state-controlled Aeroflot will no longer fly over Ukraine, an official at the airline said, following the crash of a Malaysian passenger airliner in eastern Ukraine. Germany's largest airline Deutsche Lufthansa said on Thursday its planes would steer clear of east Ukrainian air space. "Lufthansa has decided to avoid the east Ukrainian air space by a wide margin with immediate effect," a company spokesman said.

France urged airline companies on Thursday to avoid Ukraine's airspace. Air France on Thursday it had decided to avoid east Ukrainian air space.

British Airways announced announced that only one daily flight to Kiev used the airspace, but that is far away from the crash site.

Dozens of severely mutilated corpses could be seen strewn in the wreckage of flight MH17 that crashed Thursday in rebel-held eastern Ukraine but there were no signs of survivors, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Debris was spread out for kilometres and the tail of a passenger jet lay in a corn field with the Malaysian Airlines insignia on it while insurgent fighters and several fire trucks were seen nearby the crash site.

Eyewitnesses told AFP that the jet appeared to explode in mid-air before wreckage rained down over a large area.

Shocked local residents struggled to take in the scene of the carnage and said that remnants of the jet had been found in a village some 9km from the centre of the crash site.

"I had just gone to sleep at around 1600 (9pm Singapore time) when I heard an enormous bang," a 64-year-old resident, identified only as Katya, said. "It was like an earthquake." Her daughter Natalya, 36, said that she had fled to safety when the sound of the explosion rumbled overhead.

"I took my baby and went and hid in the basement," she said.

There was no sign of any rescue workers going through the gruesome site.

 

MH17 timeline 

 

A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane has crashed in Ukraine near Russian border.

 

The plane, MH17, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 280 passengers and 15 crew members.

 

Thursday, July 17

 

6pm: Scheduled time of departure of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17, a boeing 777, from Amsterdam Airport.

 

6.15pm: MH17 departed from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew.

 

10.15pm: MAS confirms it received notification from Ukrainian Air Traffic Control (ATC) that it had lost contact with MH17 at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

 

11.30pm: MH17 presumably crashed. MAS releases official tweet,“Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow.”

 

11.40pm: Moscow based news agency Interfax says Malaysian passenger airliner was shot down at altitude of 10 km above Eastern Ukraine.

 

> They confirmed the location of a burning Malaysian plane in Eastern Ukraine.

 

> The Ukrainian Interior Ministry also confirmed that all passengers and crew are dead. The aircraft was “shot down” while cruising at an altitude of 30,000ft.

 

> Igor Strelkov, the military commander of pro-Russia separatists, posted on social media shortly before MH17’s crash that rebel forces had brought down an Antonov An-26, an aircraft commonly used by Ukrainian forces, in the same area.

 

 Friday, July 18

 

12.03am: Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk orders an investigation into the crash.

 

12.05am: Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak tweets, “I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.”

 

12.18am: Ukrainian officials at the location of the crash confirm at least 100 bodies are found at the location and that body parts were scattered up to 15km from the site.

 

12.30am: Both Ukrainian authorities and rebel leaders deny shooting down MH17. A ground-to-air missile was the suspected to have brought down the aircraft.  

> Russian President Vladimir Putin is in contact with United States president Barrack Obama on the crash, according to RIA news agency. 

 

12.45am: Location of the crash site was revealed to be the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region.

 

02.10am: At least four French nationals were onboard MH17, says French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.

 

02.28am: Interfax reports that Pro-Russian separatists claim to have found MH17’s black box.

 

6.10am: Crashed MH17 scheduled to arrive in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Malaysia.