<p>Reports of almost 300 people on board.</p>
<p>Uh oh.</p>
<p>Reports are that it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Uh-oh is right.</p>
<p>Not ever going to fly Malaysian Air. </p>
<p>Wow. I <em>almost</em> booked travel that had a layover in Kiev but decided to pay extra $300 to stay out of any known war zones.</p>
<p>(thumper - cc moves fast.)</p>
<p>My kid is traveling to Cambodia in late august and almost booked on this airline.</p>
<p>Thumper - it could have been any airline! Make sure the flight path is not over the conflict area. Apparently, the plane was at 33,000 feet when it was shot down.</p>
<p>Safe travels to your kid.</p>
<p>This plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur.</p>
<p>Now that you mention it, I doubt these passengers knew they would be flying over a war zone. What a tragedy.</p>
<p>Agree, dadinator. One would think planes could be vulnerable during takeoffs and landings because of the low altitude, but much less so at 33,000 feet.</p>
<p>On April 3, the FAA told all US airlines to not fly over this area and all US carriers immediately complied.</p>
<p>What an unnecessary loss.</p>
<p>Reading the U.K. media sites on this event. Unconfirmed reports that pro-Russian separatists took credit for shooting down a cargo plane, only to re-cant when it was announced that a passenger plane had crashed. If this plane was flying at 33,000 feet, only heavy arms could have taken it down.</p>
<p>Are they sure it was shot down rather than crashed due to something going on in the plane?
Either way, how awful.</p>
<p>No US planes are flying over this region for this reason. If you can, try to book on US carriers. I’m so sorry for the families!</p>
<p>CNN is reporting that the “rebels” are not allowing an investigation. Apparently, the russians will be asked to help since they support the rebels.</p>
<p>News is saying surface to air missile. Ukraine is blaming Russian military.</p>
<h2>If this plane was flying at 33,000 feet, only heavy arms could have taken it down.</h2>
<p>Or an air-to-air missile.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Guided surface-to-air missiles can easily reach that height and higher. The only reason military planes (bombers and even cargo transports) are rarely hit at that height is they have electronic masking and jamming of the guidance systems. Commercial airplanes do not have such protections.</p>
<p>On CNN some expert (don’t know who because I am not paying that much attention) thinks that since the debris field stretches for 9 miles, it doesn’t jibe with a crash - and suggests a mid air breakup. </p>
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</p>
<p>A missile does not have the energy to disintegrate a plane; it will damage the integrity of the hull, which results in a catastrophic airframe breakup. </p>
<p>What I was saying that it requires much more sophisticated weaponry to take down a plane that is flying that high. Not something one can get from a flea market. During descent and takeoff, when the plane is flying low, terrorists on the ground do not need surface to air missiles…</p>
<p>When the crash was first reported and I was watching CNN, their ‘experts’ said it is very common for commercial planes to fly over combat zones all over the world, especially at those altitudes, that it is happening all the time. They gave some more information about the practice, talking about how easy it is for someone to tell the difference between a commercial flight, and cargo flight, etc., and that whoever shot this down, knew it was a commercial flight, as opposed to the cargo plane that was shot down earlier this week. Again, I’m just reporting what I heard on CNN within minutes of this being reported for the first time this morning. I’ve been out since, and am just now catching up - don’t know if they’re continuing to report this.</p>
<p>Oh, if this is true, this is so horrible:</p>
<p>The following was posted on Igor Stelkov’s Vkontakte page at 17:50 Moscow time, about an hour before news of the 777 crash broke:</p>
<p>"Message from the militia:</p>
<p>“In the district of Torez an An-26 was just shot down. It crashed somewhere near the Progress mine. We warned them not to fly in “our skies”. Here is video confirmation of the latest “fallen bird”. The bird landed outside the residential zone, no peaceful civilians were injured.”</p>
<p>There is also information of a second downed plane, probably an Su" [a Sukhoi combat jet]."</p>
<p>From this source:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10974050/Malaysia-Airlines-plane-crashes-on-Ukraine-Russia-border-live.html”>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10974050/Malaysia-Airlines-plane-crashes-on-Ukraine-Russia-border-live.html</a></p>