In a gruesome act of terror, a Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile by some unknown terrorists over a disputed region near the Ukraine-Russia border on the evening of July 17. All the 298 people including the passengers and crew are reportedly dead as no survivors were found. The plane subsequently crashed on Ukrainian territory soon after being hit by the missile. This incident comes a few months after the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines MH 370 flight over the Indian Ocean, which still has not been found.
The Boeing 777 was flying back to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from Amsterdam. The authorities at the Malaysian Airlines received a notification from the Air Traffic Control in Ukraine when they lost contact with the flight. The terrorists reportedly used a Buk surface-to-air missile system to shoot down the plane. According to certain witnesses, the debris of the plane was scattered over a large area and many of them even found charred bodies of the passengers. Some burning wreckage was also found at the Grabovo village where the pro-Russian rebels are quite active.
The passengers mostly were Malaysian nationals with a significant number of Dutch, Americans as well as Britons. The blame game has begun as both the Russian and Ukrainian officials pointed fingers at each other. An official from the interior ministry of Ukraine told that the Buk missiles were given to the separatists by Russia. Tension between the two countries is at an all time high after disputes over the Slavyansk region, which both the countries are claiming to be theirs as the rebels have took control over it.
The leadership of both the countries expressed their grief over the incident as the prime minister of Ukraine ordered a probe to be conducted. After this incident many airlines including Air India and Air France have decided not to fly over Ukrainian air space.