Downing of MH17

By now I guess most people would have known the fate of MH17 but this came as a shocking news to me last Friday morning (18 July 2014). It was shocking because this came only about 4 months ago when another Malaysia airline flight MH370 was lost and according to the media, somewhere in the South Indian Ocean. As at today, it is still a mystery as to the fate of this aircraft. No bodies, no debris and no wreckage is found yet.

Downing of MH17

A friend actually broke the news about the downing of MH17 late evening the day before but I was already deep in my sleep and only read her message on Friday morning. I quickly logged onto a local news portal to verify the news and it was indeed true and the rest of the morning, everyone's topic was the downing of MH17. In case you have just emerged from a cave after many years of hibernation, a Malaysian flight MH17 believed to have being shot down while flying over the Ukrainian airspace. The aircraft was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All 298 passengers and flight crews perished. It is widely believed that the aircraft was hit by a BUK missile.

BUK missile launcher

There is a civil war happening in Ukraine whereby the pro-Russian separatists are fight against the Ukraine government. The bad news was that the aircraft was downed on the area where the pro-Russian separatists are occupying which was making the search and rescue mission even more challenging. However after some efforts in negotiation and agreement between the Government of Malaysia and the separatists, the salvaging work can be carried out. Two black boxes were delivered to the Malaysian official and most of the bodies were recovered and delivered to the Netherlands for forensic identification.

As at date of this wring, investigation is still being carried out as regard to who have shot down the aircraft.