that plane with his three grandchildren. and we sort of determined that was like a likely outcome and the severity of that situation became very real at that point. loss is always so difficult to deal with, matt. i can t imagine dealing with the loss while you re also dealing with the knowledge that it comes from an act that was so incredibly senseless. well, that s right. and, you know, i think people in our family looking for some answers. nick, himself, was an inspirational hero to so many people. a real story teller and natural leader. and, you know, my memories are very fond, a great role model for me. and, so, i think you re exactly right. everything he offered to australia and his community and
rather than put a restriction on it? chuck henry reporting for us in amsterdam. thank you. appreciate it. jack, let me talk to you about what it means for international flights, restricted air space over conflict zones. malaysian airlines came out yesterday saying the path this plane originally was tracked for, this was a safe zone. there were no red flags raised because of the trajectory of this. except that the western airlines, particularly the united states, american airlines, the united states airlines, have not been flying over there. the faa sent out a warning this path, over this area, should not be used. and if you look at the map, you can see why this path was used. it is the most direct path from the netherlands to malaysia. and therefore, uses the least fuel and therefore is the
russia. he tells cnn they re still in ukraine. other breaks developments, cnn learned that u.s. officials believe it s most likely that pro-russian rebels fired the missile that brought down the plane. one senior defense official says the working theory is that russia provided the rebels with a buk surface-to-air system. we also know that at least one american was among the 298 people on board that plane, a dutch student named quinn lucas, who is also a u.s. citizen. our correspondents are standing by. some of them are at the flight 17 crash site right now. cnn is using its global reach to cover this huge breaking story for all of our viewers. first, let s go to our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. he s got new information. well, wolf, today u.s. officials, the u.s. methodically building the case for what was behind this shootdown of this passenger jet. and u.s. officials from the president, the u.s. ambassador
astutely. and that s the whole card game. that s the whole game of faints that he had, the smoke and mirrors he uses. on the one hand, he doesn t deny that the separatists fired that weapon. he never came out publicly and denied it. he simply shifted the focus of the blame on his rival enemy, whoever he s dealing with. he s done that now as long as i ve covered him. and it s been extremely successful. all right. nbc s jim maceda. thank you so much for that. for more on the fight over who shot down the plane, we turn to michael weiss, a columnist at foreign policy magazine. thanks for being back with us. let s say we find out russia was involved, whether it was them that actually pulled the tril y trigger, so to speak, or they enabled the separatists, which is probably more likely. what then for the u.s.?
we warned you, stay out of our skies posted by someone claiming to be a russian-backed commander. that post later removed, not long after the plane was identified as a passenger plane. travelers from all over the world, killed. ukraine s president is calling the incident a terrorist attack. we ask all respective governments to support the ukrainian government to bring to justice all thesis who committed this international crime. reporter: and u.s. senator john mccain is laying blame right at russia s door. separatists could have only gotten that capability from russia and, so, therefore, the culpable party here is vladimir putin. reporter: but russian president vladimir putin says ukraine is to blame saying, this tragedy would not have happened if there had been peace on that land or in any case if