U.S. official: Missile shot down Malaysia Airlines plane

(CNN) -- A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed in a rebel-controlled part of eastern Ukraine on Thursday, spurring swift accusations from Ukrainian officials that "terrorists" shot down the aircraft.

The United States has concluded a missile shot down the plane, but hasn't pinpointed who was responsible, a senior U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr.

The Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard fell from the sky near the town of Torez in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, officials said. A top Ukrainian official said the plane, which was on the way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was flying at about 10,000 meters (nearly 33,000 feet) when the missile hit.

A radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft right before the plane went down, the senior U.S. official said. A second system saw a heat signature at the time the airliner was hit, the official said. The United States is analyzing the trajectory of the missile to try to learn where the attack came from, the official said.

Nationalities aboard MH17
154 Dutch
43 Malaysian (including 15 crew)
27 Australian
12 Indonesian
9 British
4 German
4 Belgian
3 Filipino
1 Canadian
41 Unverified

Here is an exerpt from US Ambassador Samantha Powers statement at the UN:

Let me share with you our assessment of the evidence so far.

We assess Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 carrying these 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was likely downed by a surface-to-air missile, an SA-11, operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine.

The airliner was traveling at a cruise altitude of 33,000 feet and its speed was typical for an airliner along an established flight corridor frequented by commercial traffic.

The flight was transmitting its assigned transponder code corresponding with its flight plan, and flight tracking data was publicly available on the internet. There was nothing threatening or provocative about MH17.

Of the operational SAM systems located near the border, only the SA-11, SA-20, and SA-22 SAM systems are capable of hitting an aircraft at this flight’s altitude of 33,000 feet. We can rule out shorter-range SAMs known to be in separatist hands, including MANPADS, SA-8 and SA-13 systems, which are not capable of hitting an aircraft at this altitude

Early Thursday, an SA-11 SAM system was reported near Snizhne by a Western reporter and separatists were spotted hours before the incident with an SA-11 system at a location close to the site where the plane came down.

Separatists initially claimed responsibility for shooting down a military transport plane and posted videos that are now being connected to the Malaysian airlines crash. Separatist leaders also boasted on social media about shooting down a plane, but later deleted these messages.

Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11, it is unlikely that the separatists could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel. Thus, we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the systems.

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Warfare in this new century...they shoot down a plane and boast about it on Twitter?

This flight was a connector to Sydney, Australia.......there was approximately 100 people on board coming here for the 2014 International AIDS conference.
Delegates including former president of the International AIDS Society and Dutch HIV researcher Joep Lange were among those killed.

shocking, and some of the body's have been robbed of credit cards etc.
The things that human beings are capable of doing to each other is just unexplainable.

This is such a complex situation, the Russian rebels hold that territory. News reports say Ukraine emergency services have the black box, but the militants are refusing to cooperate with anyone or let anyone in......

One family's of three were saved when they were told there weren't enough seats to accommodate them.

For another family, they have lost two children from Malaysian flights.

This one and the one that disappeared.

prayers going up for all & will light a candle
wishing peace for all <3

according to the president's speech this morning he is looking at Russia as a potential culprit (because they are the only ones in that region with the technology for a missile strike at 30000ft) but he stopped short of an out right accusation.

also 1 american onboard is confirmed. there could be others.

yes, prayers to all

I think I heard Russia is supplying the militants with weaponry so maybe a case of cause and effect.....the next couple of days are going to be tense, a few countries are not happy....I hope they all settle down, quickly.

Just an update on that figure, organisers have confirmed the names of six delegates lost on the doomed flight.

Original reports suggested more than 100 delegates were on the plane heading to the 20th International Aids Conference, which more than 14,000 people will take part in over the next six days.

The six people, and their HIV-related organisations, as confirmed by the IAS are:
Pim de Kuijer, STOP AIDS NOW!
Joep Lange, co-director of the HIV Netherlands Australia Research Collaboration (HIV-NAT)
Jacqueline van Tongeren, of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development and partner of Joep Lange
Lucie van Mens, director, AIDS Action Europe
Maria Adriana de Schutter, AIDS Action Europe
Glenn Thomas, World Health Organisation

Just a quick advisory.

Mentioning an STD can get one labeled as a pariah by a couple wise *****.

Sure, Russia probably trained and supply weapons to kill innocents.

Barry supplies his Muslim brotherhood to do the same.

Wanna fault one, ya gotta fault em all.

Allow me to rephrase that.

Russia did nothing. Putin is the only one with the ultimate power to order the supplying and training.

Why is this making the news? No innocent droned children have made national headlines.

Is it because they don't have letters behind their names or they are simply disposable?

May as well refer to them as collateral damage.

It's a real dilema for the European nations since Russia supplies a lot of their energy. They are afraid that if tougher sanctions or penalties are applied, Russia will cut off supplies of oil and natural gas. This would have a dramatic affect on Europe, especially in the winter and would also have a serious impact on the economy.

The US is in a real pickle on what actions it can take and must have the support of Europe...there is no easy solution that I can see on how to punish those responsible for this tragedy.

Sad situation.

Hillary says,"What does it matter.", no?

Just over two weeks ago, Ukrainian officials warned that it was unsafe to fly at 26,000 feet in the Donetsk region. Then, just three days before the crash, they raised the floor to 32,000 feet. MH17 was flying at 33,000 feet when it was shot out of the sky.

The plane was following a route well traveled by other airlines.

According to Flightradar24, over the seven days prior to the crash, more than 800 commercial planes had chosen a similar flight path.
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That's a lot of flights over that area in 7 days.

I took a look at the flightradar24.com website....interesting.

Two wrongs don'r make a right.

Why is it the world notices when it's a couple hundred killed with one shot and no one minds if it's thousands of innocents droned a few at a time?

The black boxes for the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 have been found, a Ukraine rebel leader said Sunday.

Alexander Borodai said that the devices would be handed over to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
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It's interesting....first they said they didn't have them. Now they will turn them over?

I do not forsee the US leading on action taken unless we find out that there were more Americans on board as it was not a US flight. To me it looks like the potential situation where our allies that spend time criticizing us may now want our help....this is an issue for the Dutch and the Malaysians and possibly the Aussies to take the lead.

It is odd tho' I have also read that private airlines had been warned not to fly over....that leaves the airline pretty vulnerable legally. More importantly pretty open to questions about why they continued to fly in that zone?

what I don't get is why I heard letting planes fly through a war zone ... come to find out becouse it was the cheapest way to go and some airlines had before ...so they thought all would be ok ...so now goes they will be taking the routs around now then through ... they showed the missal coming out of Ukraine after this happened ... and if they are not giving up the black boxes... they might as well be guilty and not giving the remains of the bodies back to their family held on trains now ... and letting those pick through their belongings just is really unfathomable that they have been treated this way... if those believe this is the better way to live is disgusting to me and to those involved for what was allowed ... and do hope the united nations can get involved if this is not just a title for them now a days ... if they can not do anything... then don't even bother...