Malaysia Airlines Passenger Jet Shot Down over Ukraine
 

Sadly, this sounds like collateral damage in the Russia - Ukraine conflict.

Interesting take from the Ukraine military:

A statement from the Foreign Ministry in Kiev said the plane had been "shot down."

"According to the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces, the airplane was shot down by the Russian Buk missile system as the liner was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters [33,000 feet]," the statement added. "Ukraine has no long-range air defense missile systems in this area. The plane was shot down, because the Russian air defense systems was affording protection to Russian mercenaries and terrorists in this area. Ukraine will present the evidence of Russian military involvement into the Boeing crash."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ry?id=24599558

If its true that the Ukraine military has no ground to air assets in the area - an assertion that might be tricky to confirm - than that leaves the Russians. Also interesting are reports that the black box has been found and is on its way to ... Moscow?!

Lets say I am a cynical old man. :D

Apparently, Ukrainian Security Services intercepted a call between the separatists and their Russian minders admitting they (seemingly accidentally) shot the plane down.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukra...pt-356545.html

Accident or not, the Russian backed Ukrainian rebels just murdered 295 innocent people and now these same Cossacks have collected the black boxes and they're sending them to Moscow. Major f**k up and it's Vlad's fault.

From the Ukrainian security services.

I heard that one of these rebel officials tweeted a claim that they had shot down a Ukrainian cargo plane at the time the Malaysian plane went down, tweet now deleted

That is credible to me. An inexperienced crew might have targeted the aircraft without have the system in a safe mode, and fired inadvertently.

I suppose you're hanging on Vlad's every word.:rolleyes: Hopefully, the Russians won't try to cover it up like they did when they shot down the Korean Airlines jet. That ended up blowing up in their faces. The Russia - Ukraine border is under enough western surveillance that a Russian coverup will again prove highly embarrassing.

Whoever did it will come out, guaranteed. Any denials will just add to the embarrassment for what likely was an accidental shoot-down of what the rebels thought was a Ukrainian transport plane.

Fixed that for ya.;)

Vlad blames Poroshenko's government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...d-226d29f08597