Could Putin Have Been The Target Of Missile?

Reports that Putin flew similar route as MH17, presidential airport says 'hasn't overflown Ukraine for long time'

Published time: July 17, 2014 18:13
Edited time: July 18, 2014 04:29

Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane was travelling almost the same route as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s jet shortly before the crash that killed 298, Interfax news agency reports citing sources.

LIVE UPDATES:Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine

“I can say that Putin’s plane and the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon. That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at the height of 10,100 meters. The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian aircraft - 15:44 Moscow time,” a source told the news agency on condition of anonymity.

"The contours of the aircrafts are similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the coloring, at a quite remote distance they are almost identical", the source added.

At the same time, there have been reports contradicting Intefax’s report that was the first and the only media source to publish the news, saying that Presidential plane was not flying over Ukraine at the same time.

As a source told Gazeta.ru online news portal, Putin’s plane does take off from Vnukovo-3 [the terminal that accepts business jets], but the president does not fly over the conflict-gripped neighboring country.

“Putin has only one jet – Board One, he does not fly other planes. This plane always takes off from Vnukovo-3, but the presidential plane have not been flying over Ukraine for a while,” the source at Vnukovo-3 terminal said.

President Putin was on his way from Brazil, where he attended the BRICS summit, to Moscow.

‘Tragedy would't have taken place if there was peace in Ukraine’

Ukraine should bear responsibility for Malaysian airliner tragedy, said the head of the Russian state at a meeting on economic issues, which he proposed to start with a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the disaster.

“Obviously, the state over whose territory it happened bears responsibility for this terrible tragedy,” he said late on Thursday.

“This tragedy would not have happened if there was peace on this land, if military action in the southeast of Ukraine had not been resumed,” Putin said, adding that he has asked the appropriate Russian authorities to do everything to investigate the matter.

“We must do everything in our power that an objective picture of what happened goes public in our community, in Ukraine and all over the world,” Putin said as he expressed his condolences to the families of victims.

Flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and was carrying 298 people. The passenger Boeing-777 was expected to enter Russian airspace at 5:20pm local time, but never did, a Russian aviation industry source said.“The plane crashed 60km away from the border,” Itar-Tass cited its source.

Another Malaysian 777 Is Lost. Is This The End Of The Company?

Malaysian plane reportedly shot down in Ukraine near Russian border

Adviser to Ukraine's interior minister says plane was shot down by missile launcher

July 17, 2014 11:23AM ET Updated 2:28PM ET

Emergencies Ministry members work at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in Grabovo, Ukraine, in the Donetsk region, on Thursday.

Maxim Zmeyev / Reuters

A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border, the Interfax news agency cited an aviation industry source as saying on Thursday.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed on its Twitter feed that it had lost contact with Flight MH17, which was traveling from Amsterdam, adding that "the last known position was over Ukrainian airspace." 

Malaysia Airlines also said in a statement that it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it lost contact with the plane, a Boeing 777, about 31 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. 

The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew, the airline confirmed. Dozens of bodies were scattered around the smoldering wreckage in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported. Ukrainian officials have confirmed to Al Jazeera that the death toll from the incident is “at least 295.”

The death toll includes 23 U.S. citizens, according to a Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser quoted by Interfax. 

President Barack Obama, speaking at an event in Delaware on Thursday afternoon, said that the U.S. government is working to determine if there were any American citizens on board and that the U.S. would "offer any assistance to help determine what happened and why."

An emergency services rescue worker told Reuters at least 100 bodies had so far been found at the scene, in the village of Grabovo, about 25 miles from the Russian border.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on his Twitter page that he was "shocked" by the reports of the crash and that the government was "launching an immediate investigation." 

Meanwhile, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai is rushing back to Kuala Lumpur from Beijing, Al Jazeera has confirmed. 

The self-appointed prime minister of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Alexander Borodai, told Al Jazeera that he is headed to the location of the downed plane and that a Donetsk People's Republic investigation team was now in the area.

Borodai blamed the downing of the plane on Ukraine's government forces.

"Apparently, it's a passenger airliner indeed, truly shot down by the Ukrainian air force," Borodai told Russia's state-run Rossiya 24 TV broadcaster. Kiev denied the involvement of Ukraine's armed forces.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk surface-to-air missile system, which Russia began producing in the mid-1990s.

That flight, according to the aviation tracking website Flightstats.com, was scheduled to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6:10 a.m. local time. Major airlines have diverted their flight paths and said they would avoid flying over Ukrainian airspace.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Obama discussed the plane crash in Ukraine during a phone call. 

The development comes a day after the Ukrainian military said a Russian jet shot down a Ukrainian air force plane that was on military operations over eastern Ukraine, where government forces are fighting to quell a pro-Russian rebellion.

The incident also comes after a Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. It has not been found. 

Philip J. Victor contributed to this report, with Al Jazeera and wire services 

Malaysian plane downed in Ukraine near Russian border 1:27