Passengers ‘did not see missile coming’

The moment Malaysia Airlines flight 17 disappears from Flightradar24.

AVIATION experts and weapons analysts have shed more light on what happened on-board Flight MH17 before it was shot down.

The flight, on a Boeing 777-200, was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Passengers left Amsterdam at 12.15pm (local time) in the afternoon, and were due to touch down in Kuala Lumpur the next day at 6.10am local time.

The flight was meant to be a total of 13 hours and 10 minutes.

But less than four hours into their flight, Malaysian officials lost contact with the plane, at about 12.15am Sydney time.

The 285 people on-board would have settled in, had their first round of in-flight snacks and drinks as some of them may have dozed off until their evening meal was served or started watching in-flight movies to relax.

But at around 4pm Amsterdam time reports began to emerge that a passenger plane had crashed in eastern Ukraine.

The early reports came from an "aviation source" who was quoted by the privately-owned Russian Interfax news agency.

The plane was flying in an international air corridor over eastern Ukraine when it crashed, the Russian news agency reported.

An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashenko, posted on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) when it was "hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher", according to the Associated Press.

Shortly after reports surfaced, Malaysia Airlines tweeted it had lost contact with flight MH17 from Amsterdam.

REVEALED: What is a BUK missile?

WARNINGS IGNORED: Flight paths via Ukraine

At 33,000 feet, the plane would have been flying at roughly the same height as the summit of Mount Everest.

The air at that altitude and temperature is extremely dry, and the temperature outside would be minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Experts say that when the plane was struck by the missile, the cabin would have suddenly depressurised, leaving people with little if any time to get oxygen, before the plane crashed.

Former Qantas pilot Graham Dutton, who regularly used to fly the route over Ukraine, said it was a busy flight path and no one on the flight would have known the missile was coming their way.

"They would have had no idea what was about to happen," he said.

Mr Dutton said airlines had generally deemed it safe for passenger planes to overfly "hot spots" at cruising altitudes above 28,000 feet.

That was considered a safe level, outside the reach of normal, portable surface-to-air missiles used by non-government forces.

What happened before ... experts are trying to establish what occurred before Malaysia Airlines flight M17 was shot down. Here, passengers board at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport for Kuala Lumpur. Picture: Nicolas Asfouri Source: AFP

Former UN weapons analyst with the UN's Department of Peace Keeping Ben Rich, agreed that passengers and the crew would not have had any warning of the missile coming.

He said the radar-controlled BUK — or SA6 Russian-made missile — carries a 70kg high-explosive warhead and is designed to detonate within 20 metres of its target.

It causes terminal damage to an aircraft's engines and control systems and then causes secondary damage through fuel explosion, and wing and fuselage rupture.

Mr Rich said the SA6 family of portable, trucked missiles is the only known type in the region capable of reaching a 10km altitude to hit a commercial aircraft.

"These people (on board) would not have known the second before they were hit," Mr Rich said.

Aviation expert Bruce Rodger, President of Aero Consulting Experts, told TheWire.com that

the plane would have taken only minutes to crash.

This may explain why there was no distress call placed by the pilot before the plane was shot down.

Finding the wreckage ... an unverified image posted online shows part of the plane at the crash site. Source: Supplied

"The time for it to fall out of the sky from its altitude, depending where it hits, the engine, the wing, it takes about three to five minutes," he said.

"It all depends on the altitude and where the missile hits the plane. It could be the missile took out the aeroplane right away and it exploded right away."

As for an understanding of whether it was shot down or crashed, Rodgers says the proof is in the debris.

"A plane that has been shot down, you would have pieces of debris over a wide area. An aeroplane that has been flown till impact with the ground, you would have the aeroplane there, about three or four football fields length of debris, vs. shot down, which is miles of debris."

A US official said American intelligence authorities believe a surface-to-air missile took down the plane, but it is not clear who fired it.

PICTURES: THE M17 CRASH SITE

He said it appears unlikely the Ukrainian government, which has denied responsibility, shot down the plane because it doesn't have the capabilities. Pro-Russia separatists fighting the government have also denied any responsibility.

To back up its charge of rebel responsibility, the Ukrainian government posted on YouTube a recording of what it said was an intercepted telephone call, in which a rebel commander tells a Russian military intelligence officer that his men had shot down a passenger jet.

In the recording, the pro-Russia separatist, identified as Igor Bezler, purportedly informs the Russian, identified as Col. Vasily Geranin, that his men at the scene found "lots of bodies ... civilian stuff, aircraft seats, medical supplies, towels, toilet paper" and the passport of an Indonesian student.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Passengers ‘did not see missile coming’

Dengan url

http://kelapapantai.blogspot.com/2014/07/passengers-adid-not-see-missile-cominga.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Passengers ‘did not see missile coming’

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Passengers ‘did not see missile coming’

sebagai sumbernya