Malaysian Airlines plane "shot down" over Ukraine

Going to have to be a massive rethink by airlines flying over disputed territories and trouble spots. Such a terrible loss of life, and doubt if those responsible will ever be punished.

In no way do I mean to make light of what is obviously a tragedy, but I must confess to being slightly amused by this whole thread. After a month of armchair punditry about football, we have now turned our attention to international geopolitics, military stratagems and the finer points of aeronautical engineering.

And that's when we aren't talking about who's got the biggest tits or the best arse...

This really is a surreal place...

This is the tweet saying that separatists had had just downed a Ukrainian An-26 transport plane. It was deleted half an hour later.

(18-07-2014 11:59 )Goodfella3041 Wrote:  In no way do I mean to make light of what is obviously a tragedy, but I must confess to being slightly amused by this whole thread. After a month of armchair punditry about football, we have now turned our attention to international geopolitics, military stratagems and the finer points of aeronautical engineering.

And that's when we aren't talking about who's got the biggest tits or the best arse...

This really is a surreal place...

Just wait until the conspiracy theorists get going on this

Obama saying Russian pro-rebels responsible for shooting plane down. Look at Putins face when he is trying to wriggle out of any responsibility. Blood on his hands has Putin and his criminal cronies.

(18-07-2014 17:00 )bytor Wrote:  Just wait until the conspiracy theorists get going on this

The only conspiracy theory I've heard so far comes from a guy called Strelkov, otherwise known as the separatists Minister of Defence. He is busy telling people that the plane was full of dead bodies and that Ukraine deliberately crashed the plane to blacken the separatist name.

Conspiracy theorists are handicapped by the fact that the missile is known to have been launched from or near the town of Snizhne. There are no Ukrainian forces in Snizhne, only separatist rebel forces.

I think the facts here point to a simple conclusion. Nobody is denying that the plane has been shot down and it's not possible to shoot down a plane at 33,000 feet with a shoulder rocket-fired missile. So it has to be state-sponsored terrorism.

It was most likely Russian separatists who shot it down, mistaking it for a Ukrainian military plane.

As for "state-sponsored terrorism", unless a state told them to target civilian planes, that state is not responsible.

So the separatists are refusing to allow international access to the crash site and are removing evidence from it as fast as possible. By the time investigators are eventually allowed in how much evidence will be left?