responsible for putin to the seprise separatists more and more different kind of weaponry. and history of what has to be stopped and has to be stopped now. everybody hopes the violence in the east stops as quickly as possible and we can get answers as to what happened to the plane. let us know how we can help while we re here. it was very important. let me express, once more, the deepest condolences to any relative or friends to anyone on this plane. we have been working around the globe to find out who was responsible and working around the clock to help everyone who would come to ukraine to find their relatives and friends here. it is, indeed, critical. thank you for taking the opportunity. thanks. back to you in new york. chris, thanks so much. speaking with ukrainian foreign
has the launching device, if you will, again, paints a very clear picture. a picture that the government here is trying to put across almost since the get go, almost for the whole 24 hours since the plane was shot down. hearing the confirmation of that from moscow and hearing what moscow intends to do with those devices, will it pass them to the expected chain of command, the expected government responsibility ukraine. all of that is unclear. until we hear from the russian authorities on this confirming this information, it seems at the moment it s just more that we have from the ukrainian authorities that needs further inquiring and investigation, john. all right, nic, thanks so much. let s on this very point bring in rick francona. rick, what do you make of what you re hearing from nic on the
satellites have been trained on the border. and infrared satellites first detected the launch. then, the blast, as the missile hit the plane. the weapons are russian-made anti-aircraft missiles. four missiles on a turret, launched from a vehicle loaded with high-tech electronics. the missile is 18 feet long. it s guided to the target by radar. has a range of 25 miles and 46,000 feet altitude. so fast, you can t see it coming, with a speed of nearly one mile per second. u.s. officials seay a ukrainian military plane was shot down by the same kind of weapons system. u.s. officials are confident it was a missile that shot down the airliner. but they re not sure who fired the shot. according to u.s. officials, analysts are poring over all of the intelligence tonight, to figure out whether it was ukrainian separatists or
around is the people who shot this down thought they were shooting down a ukrainian military plane. how difficult is it to hit the thing you intend to hit? ideally, the way this would work if it was under regular military control was the sa-11 system usually has three to four vehicles. one of them is a command vehicle with an acquisition radar which sorts through everything in the sky, decides what a target is, and then passes it to the target engagement radar associated with the missiles. what i suspect happened and this is just my opinion, but i suspect what happened is these guys got ahold of just the transporter erector launcher vehicle with the missiles on it. it also has a radar. it s a target engagement radar, but it s a lot less discriminating than the acquisition radar. if they locked on to this thing by mistake thing it was an am-26 or cargo airplane and shot off a missile and got malaysian flight 17 instead. that s what i think happened. dan, of course you re one of th
later in the show. maciaela is on assignment and we re following two stories. wolf blitzer is on the ground in israel as they launch a ground offensive. the military trying to close off tunnels. we ll get back to wolf in just a second. he ll cover all of that for us. but, first, we must begin with the stunning realization according to a senior u.s. official that it was a missile that brought down flight 17 over a rebel-controlled part of eastern ukraine. 298 people were on that flight when it was shot from the sky. most of the passengers have been identified. none so far are american. ukrainian officials now calling for justice. they accuse pro-russian separatists of shooting down the plane. but russian president vladimir putin is pointing his finger at ukraine, blaming its military campaign against the separatists. this disaster may only inflame