Missile destroys Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine, killing 298 people

• The Guardian, Friday 18 July 2014

Link to video: Ukrainian president calls Malaysia Airlines crash a 'terrorist attack'
 
The president of Ukraine has accused pro-Russia rebels in the east of the country of shooting down a Malaysia Airlines jet with a ground-to-air missile, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew.

The huge loss of life threatens to have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences, coming just after the US imposed further sanctions on Russia for continuing to provide weapons to the rebels.

Last night US vice-president Joe Biden said the plane had been shot down, while the Ukrainian authorities released an audio recording of rebel commanders apparently admitting downing it.

The jet, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the village of Grabovo, part of the area controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Link to video: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashes over Ukraine It was flying 1,000ft above restricted airspace when it was shot down, according to the European air traffic control body. Eurocontrol said Ukrainian authorities had barred aircraft up to 32,000ft but the doomed aircraft was cruising at 33,000ft, still within range of sophisticated surface-to-air weaponry, when it was hit. All flights in eastern Ukraine have now been barred from the area.

A partial breakdown of passenger nationalities was released, showing that 154 Dutch nationals, 45 Malaysians and 27 Australians were on board, along with nine passengers believed to be from the UK.
Newly-appointed foreign secretary Philip Hammond said: "We do believe that there were British nationals on board the flight. We are working through passenger data, cross-checking it and referencing it to establish exactly the numbers and identities of those British nationals."
 

People walk among the debris of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Photograph: Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
The field next to the tiny hamlet was a scene of charred earth and twisted metal as shocked local people milled around the scene. Body parts belonging to the 298 people on board were strewn around. The body of what appeared to be a young woman was flung about 500m from the centre of the crash.

"This was not an 'incident', this was not a 'catastrophe', this was a terrorist act," said Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko.

US government officials confirmed to media outlets that a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane. US intelligence was reportedly still working to determine the exact location from which the missile was fired, and whether it was on the Russian or the Ukrainian side of the border.

Rebels in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics have shot down several Ukrainian planes and helicopters in recent weeks. But they insisted they had no part in the downing of MH17, saying Ukrainian fire was responsible.