Malaysian Airlines MH17 Crashes in Ukraine

[ellen10]

Oh my gosh. Such an awful incident.
So sad for all aboard and their families.
This is big news across the world.

 

[FuzzyAUS]

I am in a board meeting at the moment, what aircraft type was it?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Don't know how much truth is in this... CNN showed aircraft in the area at the time of the incident (flightradar24) and then showed the same area again three hours later... all but three aircraft had stopped flying through there... but there was supposedly another MH jet flying through. Hope that's not true!

 

[Foreigner]

i am in a board meeting at the moment, what aircraft type was it?

b777-200

....

 

[equus]

what other airlines fly through terrorist areas?

There is Terrorist and there is Terrorist. Depends on what the label is applied to. The ability to shoot down an aircraft in cruise is not so common - being labelled terrorist, but probably the question should be more what airlines fly through war zones? Of course, it is a grey line of escalation from tension to separatist to terrorist to civil war to external nations being involved.

 

[Foreigner]

Financial markets in Europe have had impact following this incident.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

There is Terrorist and there is Terrorist. Depends on what the label is applied to. The ability to shoot down an aircraft in cruise is not so common - being labelled terrorist, but probably the question should be more what airlines fly through war zones? Of course, it is a grey line of escalation from tension to separatist to terrorist to civil war to external nations being involved.

Just asking opinions, do people think its negligent of MAS for flying the route even though it was within legal airspace? Or should we consider this failure of our aviation institutions?

 

[tomw]

Don't know how much truth is in this... CNN showed aircraft in the area at the time of the incident (flightradar24) and then showed the same area again three hours later... all but three aircraft had stopped flying through there... but there was supposedly another MH jet flying through. Hope that's not true!

MH21 CDG-KUL an A380 diverted south over Romania and Turkey in the hours after.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

MH21 CDG-KUL an A380 diverted south over Romania and Turkey in the hours after.

Thanks for clearing that up. I couldn't imagine MH continuing to fly there.

 

[777]

My thoughts are with the loved ones of all those aboard and I hope that the AFF community is all present and accounted for. What a horrible tragedy.

 

[Slats7]

Back in April, US flights were warned not to fly over conflict-ridden regions of eastern Ukraine by the FAA earlier this year. (Reported in the Guardian Malaysia Airlines plane MH17 'crashes in Ukraine' - live updates | World news | theguardian.com which is maintaining updates.)

R.I.P to all those on board.

 

[Foreigner]

Terrible news.

It does beg the question as to how airlines assess on a continual basis the shifting geopolitical tensions around the world and how frequently they do so.

My condolences to all involved.

It seems expediency has overtaken risks

 

[OzEire]

Can someone who knows about this stuff comment on IFF and transponder codes? Would a mobile SAM truck be able to interpret this info ?

And if several Ukranian military flights had been attacked in the week prior; they might not have inclined to show correct info in their transponders, escalating the risk for all flights in the area.

 

[SydneySwan]

Just asking opinions, do people think its negligent of MAS for flying the route even though it was within legal airspace? Or should we consider this failure of our aviation institutions?

I think it is a problem with risk assessment in that even if the chance of a jet being shot down by a missile is miniscule, when it happens it is totally disastrous. There is no easy solution. I still have bad memories of when KAL007 was shot down over Russian airspace in 1983. I hoped we would never see that sort of thing again. RIP to all those on board.

 

[Slats7]

ABC News is reporting that the "rebels" have the black box (boxes) and will turn them over only to the Russians.

 

[markis10]

Back in April, US flights were warned not to fly over conflict-ridden regions of eastern Ukraine by the FAA earlier this year. (Reported in the Guardian Malaysia Airlines plane MH17 'crashes in Ukraine' - live updates | World news | theguardian.com which is maintaining updates.)

R.I.P to all those on board.

The newly created Crimean FIR was the focus of the warning, nowhere near the area where the incident occurred.

 

[jlien]

Woke up to hear of this terrible news.

My condolences to everyone involved. Such an awful tragedy.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

I think it is a problem with risk assessment in that even if the chance of a jet being shot down by a missile is miniscule, when it happens it is totally disastrous. There is no easy solution. I still have bad memories of when KAL007 was shot down over Russian airspace in 1983. I hoped we would never see that sort of thing again. RIP to all those on board.

Fair call. I wonder who will get blamed for providing the weapons, it could be either the Russians or the Ukrainian (which their anti-air military base was seized last month)......

 

[Formal Hall]

KLM which also flies AMS-KUL (and which I am booked on later in the year) have been regularly overflying Ukraine on similar flight paths to MH17, so not all US/UK/EU airlines have been avoiding the area previously.

I feel that the rapid statements from other airlines saying they are avoiding the airspace, while reassuring for passengers, heighten the impression that MH was doing something out of the ordinary. For instance Delta is tweeting that they are not using Ukrainian airspace, but none of their routes go near the area anyway.

 

[UP4014]

Just asking opinions, do people think its negligent of MAS for flying the route even though it was within legal airspace? Or should we consider this failure of our aviation institutions?

This sort of thing I would say is foreseeable, it shouldn't need a Govt authority to issue a diversion. Think about when driving and you come to a flooded road, you might assess and drive through but you do that every time not just plough into it because there is no stop and go man telling you it's dangerous. However, those fools who do plough though could be employed by an airline, they are employed by someone.

Matt