A MALAYSIA Airlines plane with 298 people on board, including 28 Australians, has been shot down in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine.
Plumes of black smoke rose near the rebel-held village of Grabovo in eastern Ukraine, at the crash site 40 kilometres from the Russian border. No survivors have been found.
The flight MH17, a Boeing 777-200, was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian officials lost contact with it about 12.15am Sydney time.
Malaysia Airlines says there were 298 people on board, not 295 as originally stated. At least 28 of the victims are Australian.
The number of Australians killed was revised to 28 by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop this afternoon, after she met with Russian Ambassador. It’s possible the number of Australian citizens killed in the disaster will go higher.
Among the dead are Victorian couple Albert and Marie Rizk, who are believed to have missed an earlier flight and ended up on MH17.
Mr Rizk, a local real estate agent, and his wife, who have two children, were due to return home from Europe today after spending a month abroad on holidays.
Other victims are 27-year-old Melbourne student Elaine Teoh, Sister Philomene Tiernan — a teacher at eastern Sydney’s Catholic girls’ school — and Perth management consultant Nick Norris, who was travelling with his grandchildren.
Denis Napthine, the Premier of Victoria, said it was likely there were permanent residents of Australia travelling on other passports who were also killed in the crash.
Double Disasters Taint Malaysia Airlines
Hit by two astonishing tragedies in quick succession, the Malaysia Airlines brand may become the airline industry's equivalent of asbestos or News of the World: toxic to the public and, experts say "impossible to redeem."
Last night the ABC news published that "Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over eastern Ukraine on Thursday with 298 people aboard by what American intelligence authorities believe was a surface-to-air missile. Just four months earlier, a Malaysia Airlines jetliner carrying 239 people disappeared about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. The jet has still not been found, a source of profound unease for travelers and the aviation industry."
Question that lingers in my mind is..."if this was a surface-to-air missile...where was the missile going??"
And according to my small mind I think missile uses the technology of heat-seeking and the only heat producing organisms in the air at that moment the missile was in the air were passengers in the Malaysian plane.
The ABC news continue:
"I can't comprehend of anything they can do to save themselves," said Mohshin Aziz, an aviation analyst at Maybank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"Perception-wise it really hits home," Aziz said. "It's very difficult to fight against negative perception."
Even before the Flight 370 mystery, state-owned Malaysia Airlines was in serious financial trouble. In an industry infamous for impoverishing shareholders and irking customers, Malaysia Airlines had long stood out for its years of restructurings and losses.
The Flight 370 disaster along with the often erratic response of Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government deeply scarred the carrier. Now, the once proud national airline is facing the unthinkable again.
University student Dayne Rodgers, waiting for a flight to Brisbane, Australia at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, said even very cheap fares might not convince him to fly with Malaysia Airlines.
"I don't know if my Mum would let me," he said.
Already losing about $1.6 million a day, there will be "no miracles" for Malaysia Airlines, said Aziz, the Maybank analyst. Before the Ukrainian disaster, his opinion was the airline didn't have the capacity to survive beyond a year.
The airline's share price plummeted 11 percent Friday. Ukraine has accused pro-Russian separatists of shooting down the plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The rebels denied it.
Unlike Flight 370, the responsibility for which is pinned with Malaysia Airlines, the second disaster appears largely beyond the airline's control. It may, however, face questions about why it continued with flight paths over eastern Ukraine, which is the heart of a violent rebellion against Kiev, when some airlines were circumventing the country.
For air travelers in Asia, who have a multitude of options thanks to a budget airline boom, the latest incident will make the Malaysian carrier even less attractive. Its brand in the rest of the world, where it became known largely because of the Flight 370 mystery, is now even more closely associated with the worst fears of fliers.
Josh Gokul, a 25-year-old Australian student on a layover at Incheon, said he had flown with Malaysian Airlines before and its service was "fantastic."
But he is now "very hesistant" about using the airline. "Flying is scary enough."
Within Malaysia, the shock is palpably raw.
"I was stunned," said 48-year-old shopkeeper Reezal Mohamed. "It's unbelievable."
Malaysia Airlines has been in the dark for the last three years. Last year, its losses ballooned to 1.17 billion ringgit ($363 million), nearly three times larger than its 433 million ringgit loss in 2012
Leading HIV researchers lost as flight MH17 is downed in Ukraine
From the Telegraph:
"The attacked Malaysia Airlines flight was carrying more than 100 of the world's top Aids experts who were flying to an international conference in Melbourne, including leading HIV researcher and "true humanitarian" Joep Lange.
The victims, which have left the international HIV research community in mourning, included staff from the World Health Organisation and medical researchers, health workers and activists who were due to attend the twentieth International Aids Conference. Glenn Thomas, a Geneva-based WHO media adviser, is also believed to have been aboard.
Dr Lange, a Dutchman, who was on board with his wife Jacqueline van Tongeren, was a former president of the International Aids Society and has been researching HIV for 30 years. He has authored more than 350 papers and helped lead the fight for the availability of affordable treatments across Asia and Africa."
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the plane never made a distress call.He called for an international team to have full access to the crash site."We must and we will find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone will be left unturned," he said."If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice," Najib said.
@Hakkapip tweets:
How an Act of Aggression Complicates Insurance Questions for Malaysia Airlines;
here are the statistics for the nationalities of the passengers in the MH17
in short the world is not a safe place!!!
Keep praying anything can happen anytime... my condolences to those lost in the flight downed yesterday.
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