'Hunt them down': MH17 families hope for justice

Russian cowards not capable of owning up to their heinous crime. No courage, no morality, and that extends to Russian authorities that are also responsible for covering up Russian guilt. Disgusting people.

What Peter14 said.

a. Who was flying military aircraft in eastern Ukraine at that time? Russia

b. Who was trying to shoot down those aircraft? Ukraine

Who should not have been flying over an active war zone? Malaysia Airlines

A lot of people are wondering what the Russians are doing. Putin must have a plan which he must have briefed the military on otherwise he would have already "died of a heart attack", "chocked to death on a pretzel", "hung himself when his guards fell asleep and surveillance camera stopped working", "shot himself twice in the back of the head" or whatever. I just hope it comes to fruition soon because open barbarism prevails in the collective West at present.

@mrUkiplinq Who should not have been flying over an active war zone? Malaysia Airlines

Once again blaming the victims, which is typical of the pro-Russian rightists, but not surprising to hear after reading them blame Ukrainian civilians for becoming houseless and butchered by Putin's militaries.

Once again blaming the victims, which is typical of the pro-Russian rightists,

I didn't read Mr Kipling's post as blaming victims. Airlines don't get to choose their flight paths. There was a lot of unclear and confusing information at the time of the incident. Some discredited, some still unconfirmed. Why was Malaysian Airlines asked to fly on that path? Was there a Ukrainian military plane flying behind the passenger plane? I don't think there were too many pro-Russian rightists around at the time. There were questions about the activities of Ukrainian rightists in the area.

PTownsend...

Once again blaming the victims..

Once again missing the point with your blind hatred of Russia.

Malaysia Airlines lost a crew and a plane. The victims were the passengers. Most other airlines were re-routing around the active conflict zone.

As always, the pertinent question is "Qui bono?"

The article does not mention the date of the attack.

17 July 2014, was the date. The president of Ukraine was Petro Poroshenko.

Petro Poroshenko held Russia responsible for MH17.

Australia and the Netherlands informed the Russian Federation in 2018 that the two countries held Russia responsible under international law for its role in the bringing down of MH17.

Prosecutors say the suspects, three Russians, and a Ukrainian, helped arrange the Russian missile system used to shoot down MH17, a civilian aircraft. The suspects are believed to be in Russia and are not expected to attend.

Russians Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Igor Girkin, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.

Girkin, was responsible for triggering the war in eastern Ukraine and is busy killing people even now. Sadly I doubt this monster feels an iota of shame, embarrassment or regret. The others are probably of a like ilk, products of the “russian world”.

Zelensky obstructed the investigations by not turning over a Ukrainain suspect,and let go to Russia

Leonid Kharchenko was detained on unrelated charges in eastern Ukraine around the time the murder trial against the MH17 suspects started in the Netherlands in 2020.

Pro-Russian authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic arrested Kharchenko near his home on March 11, 2020. He was reportedly charged with illegal possession of firearms and an illegal search.

@Yrral - if what you say is true, Zelensky should be indicted and put on trial himself.

7 July 2014, was the date. The president of Ukraine was Petro Poroshenko. 

Petro Poroshenko held Russia responsible for MH17.

@wallace, is that important?

Oddly, Poroshenko had been elected president, but no elections were held in the area where the plane was shot down. There was fighting going on there. I understand Poroshenko also said the MH flight shouldn't have been allowed to fly over that area.

When it comes to this type of thing, a need for pure vengeance / retribution, then you need to go outside of the normal reliance upon your own Government for a solution.

An airliner flying on a published Jet Route will be transmitting a four digit code assigned to that flight by an air traffic control agency so it can be identified among the hundreds of other aircraft visible to the controller in the sector they monitor. When the ground based air traffic control radar sweeps the aircraft it interrogates the transponder, which replies with that 4 digit code and tells air traffic control what barometric altitude the aircraft's altimeter is displaying to the pilots. This is how air traffic control maintains safe separation horizontally and vertically.

That BUK missile system will have something on it designed to read that transponder. It is called IFF for Identification Friend or Foe. In wartime military aircraft send an encrypted transponder signal that allows friendly forces to avoid shooting at them while identifying hostile aircraft. That same system however will clearly show the operator a non encrypted signal of an airliner. It is the duty of the air defense operator to know what civilian aircraft are in their sector, what their transponder codes are and to not engage them. However if the system, in this case a BUK, was not communicating with an air traffic authority it may not have been aware the transponder code on their radar corresponded to a known commercial flight. If true then the operator cut corners and this created a preventable trajedy.

Who should not have been flying over an active war zone? Malaysia Airlines

They were on a published Jet Route along with lots of other commercial flights. In hindsight it would have been a better choice for ICAO to NOTAM those Jet Routes and route traffic around the dangerous areas, but that adds time, burns more fuel and cost airlines a lot of extra money on those routes so ICAO is not in a hurry to do things that harm their clientele.