self-propelled missile fired from a launcher on a vehicle like a truck. up to 35,000 meters in the air, around 82,000 feet, if you like. roughly double a commercial jet s maximum cruising altitude. according to defense analysts, both ukrainian and russian military do have these weapons in their arsenal. tom foreman with more on the buk missile system. reporter: if you want to figure out what could have hit this plane, you have to think about the circumstances of the plane at the time. it was about 32,000, 33,000 feet in the air over ukraine. it was about 30 miles away from the russian border. so you cannot hit this with some shoulder-fired antiaircraft missile. they re just not strong enough. what you would need is something much more like this. this is the buk anti-missile system. it s one of those that s being talked about in this case. it is a four-man unit.
know that you ve seen the particular video, have you seen evidence that an sa-11 or buk missile system would cross the border at some point from russia into ukraine, and what can you tell us about that system and the sophistication and training that would be needed by russian separatists to actually be able to operate it effectively? i don t have specific information about a buk system making that transit. we re not ruling anything in or out at this point. it is it is a sophisticated that said, it is a sophisticated system. the missile itself, the saa 11, which is the one we believe was used to down flight 17, is a sophisticated piece of technology. and it it strained credulity to think it could be used by separatists without at least some measure of russian support
back-up from russian armed forces. it would mean that russia is directly responsible for the death of 300 people. what you are suggesting is that this buk missile system is so complicated that they can t rule out the possibility that russian advisers somehow assisted these pro russian rebels in firing this at this malaysian aircraft, this commercial aircraft. you say you want a wrongful death suit then against the perpetrators then, if you think vladimir putin is a lawsuit snuff? my guess is that luke oil has a number of assets in the united states. they should always realize tens of millions of dollars will be lost for their international assets because of actions like this and get control of their armed forces, to make sure there s effective command and
defense official is at thing cnn their work theory abeimong the military is russian military supplied this buk missile system. it s a if question. this is what i was told. their working theory is this missile system came from a ukrainian base in crimea and that it was transferred from crimea to eastern ukraine, but via russian territory. if you look at a map, it would have to go from ukraine, through, you know, one route would be to take it through russia. that was their working theory. one of the comeing, many questions that hasn t been established yet. based on the statement from the pentagon, the president, our u.n. ambassador, that they would at least need training to operate this thing as well and that adds more responsibility. we re going to talk, when we come back, to a reporter on scene at the crash site for the latest on exactly what s happening there. we ll be right back. great. but parallel parking isn t one of them.
senator mark kirk from illinois. he was one of first to call for a tough response over the crisis in ukraine. as you know, in a couple of minutes, president obama will be delivering a response from the white house on this situation in ukraine and the plane that was shot down. what do you want to hear from the president? i want to hear that the department of justice will bring one hell wrongful death suit against trussia with a weapons system that is operated by russian forces. do you blame vladimir putin? it appears the system is so complicated that it would need a