23 Americans said to be on the Malaysia flight that just went down !

re:because the route was declared safe by the relevant authorities.


I would think if there is a war going on below you,the airline would not fly over it but around it.
To save millions in fuel cost rather then worry about your passengers,I believe was the management decision.
 
No doubt, Davey. They are experiencing financial difficulties after the other plane, MH370, went missing and have had to lower their fares. Fuel costs would have been the deciding factor but it was Thought that planes above 30,000 ft could not be hit by missiles. Now they know better.

This is a very sad report

A Queensland family who lost relatives on doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are in mourning again after losing more family members on MH17 in Ukraine. Irene and George Burrows from Biloela, south of Rockhampton, are still mourning their son Rodney and his wife Mary who were on flight MH370, which disappeared without trace over the southern Indian Ocean in March.

But tragedy has gripped their family a second time.

It has been revealed Irene and George's daughter Kaylene Mann lost her step-daughter Marie Rizk and her husband Albert in the MH17 disaster.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-...-family-hit-by-both-malaysian-crashes/5608524
Click to expand...
 
lets do the math. 239 dead on the first one. now 298 on this one. that's a grand total of 537 dead inside of 4 mons. yes sir fly malay airlines. the safest airline flying
 
re:but it was Thought that planes above 30,000 ft could not be hit by missiles. Now they know better.

The plane was at 32,000 feet and the rocket was launched 30 miles away near the border.
They say the rocket doesn't actually have to hit the plane to bring it down,just be near it and explode by electronic detection.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
No doubt, Davey. They are experiencing financial difficulties after the other plane, MH370, went missing and have had to lower their fares. Fuel costs would have been the deciding factor but it was Thought that planes above 30,000 ft could not be hit by missiles. Now they know better.

This is a very sad report
Click to expand...

I think 30,000 might be the limit if not less for hand held shoulder fired missiles. This Russian rocket is a completely different animal because it's exactly that- a small rocket which has to be launched from a platform and not fired from a device.

Should add I thought I heard that the Russians gave or sold these anti aircraft weapons to the separatists with minimal training ie the radar/tracking system that finds the target. You need extra training just to distinguish targets.
 
President Obama Says at Least One American On Board Downed Malaysia Airline Plane in Ukraine

Jul 18, 2014, 2:39 PM ET
By COLLEEN CURRY and LUIS MARTINEZ

 At least one American was on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 carrying 298 people when it was shot down by a missile over Ukraine, President Obama said today.

The State Department identified the victim as Quinn Lucas Schansman, a US-Dutch citizen.


Obama also called for an immediate ceasefire in the region among Ukraine, Russia and Russian-backed separatists in order to conduct an investigation into the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

"We know [Russian separatists] have received steady support from Russia, which includes heavy weapons and training ... and includes anti-aircraft weapons," Obama said.


U.S. officials said earlier today that intelligence showed nothing that definitively links Russia to the training of those who launched the missile on Thursday, U.S. officials told ABC News.

But officials did say that based on preliminary intelligence, they believe the missile was an SA-11 and that they have reports showing an explosion in the air following the missile launch.

In addition, an official said the missile was fired inside Ukraine in a territory controlled by Russian separatists. Ukrainian authorities told U.S. Embassy officials Thursday that debris was spread out over a 10-mile path near the town of Hrabove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

http://abcnews.go.com/International...wned-malaysia-airline-plane/story?id=24612351


 
The Dutch have taken the biggest hit. I think the latest figure is 169 and I've heard that there were 80 children on board.

The global AIDS community is in total shock because senior researchers have been lost. The conference is still going ahead but everyone is shattered by what has happened.


Memorial services have begun over here for the victims, several of which are much loved teachers. One was a senior nun from a Sydney catholic school, another a Year 8 co-ordinator at a Melbourne public school. Another couple were retired teachers from Queensland. Not the sort of people you expect to be caught up in a war but I suppose this is the reality of every war. It is only where it comes close to home, not in the geographical sense but is the emotional sense, that the meaningless horror of it all begins to sink in.
 
kcvet said:
at least 23
Click to expand...

Are you sure of that figure? Latest info is one US-Dutch citizen.

Downed Jet Claimed Victims From 11 Countries

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Jul 18, 2014, 2:27 PM ET
By MIKE CORDER Associated Press

The human cost of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 hit home around the world Friday, upending scores of families and small communities spanning half of the planet, from a Dutch fishing village to an Australian soccer club and a Dubai cake store.


Relatives and colleagues paid emotional tribute to the dead. Students gathered to pray for lost friends, and even Tour de France cyclists paused for a moment's silence in memory of the 298 people killed in Ukraine.

The victims came from 11 countries and all walks of life. They included an acclaimed AIDS researcher from Amsterdam, a nun and teacher from Sydney, a Dutch senator and a World Health Organization spokesman.

"Today, the stories are emerging about individual travelers," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. "Youngsters, a big group of scientists, sometimes whole families who yesterday afternoon got on board and unknowingly headed toward their hopeless fate."

Because the plane took off from Amsterdam, most were Dutch headed for Kuala Lumpur. But others were from elsewhere in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. One was a dual U.S.-Dutch citizen, Malaysia Airlines said. They left behind relatives searching for answers and clinging to memories.

"It's a black day," said Ron Peter Pabellon, a Filipino cake maker in Dubai who fears he lost an aunt, uncle and two cousins, one of them his best friend. "I want to see (them) with my own eyes because I don't want to accept. I don't want to believe."

The crash heaped tragedy upon tragedy for one Australian family that also had relatives aboard the Malaysian Airlines plane that vanished in March. Kaylene Mann's brother Rod Burrows and sister-in-law Mary Burrows were on Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean but has never been found. On Friday, Mann learned that her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk, was killed on Flight 17.

"It's just brought everyone, everything back," said Greg Burrows, Mann's brother. "It's just ... ripped our guts again."

Several passengers on Flight 17 were traveling to Melbourne, Australia, for a major international AIDS conference.
The United Nations organization UNAIDS said the crash claimed "some of the finest academics, health care workers and activists" working on the disease.

The Academic Medical Center hospital in Amsterdam said two of its staff members, including renowned AIDS researcher Joep Lange, a former president of the International AIDS Society, and his colleague Jacqueline van Tongeren were believed to have perished.

"Joep was a man who knew no barriers," the hospital said. "He was a great inspiration for everybody who wanted to do something about the AIDS tragedy in Africa and Asia."

Karlijn Keijzer, a 25-year-old Dutch graduate student at Indiana University, was mourned by rowing communities on both sides of the Atlantic. The Amsterdam student rowing club Skoll said on its website that Keijzer died with another rower from the club, Laurens van der Graaff, on their way to a vacation together.

In the close-knit fishing village of Volendam, near the Dutch capital, flowers were laid outside a florist's shop. The shop's owner and her boyfriend were among the victims. A handwritten note taped to the storefront above a bunch of orange roses, read: "Dear Cor and Neeltje. This is unwanted, unbelievable and unfair. Rest in peace. We will never forget you."


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/passengers-doomed-airliner-dutch-24610004
Click to expand...

Another source confirms one Dutch-US citizen

Obama said that at least one American was among those killed in the crash. He later identified the man as Quinn Lucas Schansman, a dual Dutch-U.S. citizen.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/obama-statement-ukraine-mh-17-crash-2014-7
Click to expand...
 
Dame Warrigal said:
Are you sure of that figure? Latest info is one US-Dutch citizen.



Another source confirms one Dutch-US citizen
Click to expand...


President Obama said today, there was one Dutch-US citizen too. Dame Warrigal.....The State Department identified the victim as Quinn Lucas Schansman, a US-Dutch citizen.
 
There's a lot of background to the Russia Ukraine situation that is not being discussed. I haven't got a link to hand but apparently Putin made some concessions to NATO? EU? in return for an assurance that they would not make any moves eastward. The overtures by Ukraine to join the EU were seen by Russia as a double cross, hence the annexing of Crimea and the current rebellion in Ukraine. He's reclaiming parts of the old USSR that are ethnically Russian.

Local disputes like this one have a tendency to blow up into much bigger wars. I hope everyone stays calm and that WW III can be avoided.
 
The first report didn't come from the State Department. It was a Reuters report emanating from Ukraine. Amsterdam said that none of the passengers were travelling on US passports. Unfortunately a lot of news media went off half cocked and started beating up Obama for not doing anything.
 
It would have suited the Government in Ukraine if US citizens had been on board that flight, as they would have hoped the US would go in mob handed to avenge their loss!
 

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