Fleet in midflight between amsterdam and kuala lumpur. The plane departed amsterdam scheduled to arrive in kuala lumpur 12 hours later. Air Traffic Controllers lost contact with the plane two hours after takeoff. About 31 miles from the Russia Ukraine border. It is a stunning twist of fate that this was another Malaysia Airlines flight. The pictures are terrifying and tragic. Human beings intact, passports, even a guide book for a vacation unharmed. Yet every single human being on that plane lost their lives. This ominous picture of mh17 before takeoff was purported i taken by a passenger on the plane during boarding. He posted this picture referencing the missing plane, in case it disappears, this is what it looks like. We dont know how Many Americans were on the plane but the loss of lives are felt immediately on the ground. Dutch passports, many found on board seen on the ground untouched by fire or ruined. Some look unused, new. The wreckage you can see here in a field near the Donetsk Region of ukraine which is controlled by prorussian forces. This picture purports to show an antiaircraft weapon in donetsk. The question is was this the weapon used to shoot down this plane, and if so, who fired it . Did they intend to shoot a commercial airplane out of midair . We begin our coverage with jim sciutto in washington. What is the latest you know about this terror in the sky . U. S. Officials now confirming what ukrainian officials have been telling me all day long, that there was evidence that this plane was taken down by a surfacetoair missile. The two pieces of evidence that u. S. Officials cite are, one, tracking by u. S. Assets in the region showing that a Missile System radar locked eed on to jet before it was shot down and signs of a heat signature missile rising from the ground towards that jet. Two very strong clues that this was a missile attack. Ukrainian officials going on to say that it was a missile like that one that you just showed a picture of there, a russianmade missile which ukrainian Officials Say was taken by prorussian separatists a couple of weeks ago, then leading to this tragedy today. The malaysian jet fell from the sky over Eastern Ukraine in a fireball in a black cloud. Pieces of burning debris visible, trailing gray smoke. On the ground wreckage littered the landscape, spread over a large area. Evidence, ukrainian officials tell cnn, that the boeing 777 came apart at high altitude. Ukrainian officials quickly blamed a missile strike by prorussian separatists. The foreign minister telling cnn, quote, its as clear as day. Theyve been hunting our planes for weeks. Ukraines newly elected president Petro Poroshenko called it an act of terrorism. Translator we do not call it an incident or a catastrophe. A terrorist action. Reporter the u. S. Concluded the plane was shot down. But the u. S. Does not know who is responsible. Russian president Vladimir Putin is already laying his own blame saying the state over whose territory it happened, naming ukraine, is responsible for this terrible tragedy. This morning putin delivered the news of the crash to president obama during a phone call to discuss new u. S. Sanctions against russia. Sanctions sparked by Russian Support for ukrainian militants including supplying weapons and fighters. It looks like it may be a terrible tragedy. The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. Reporter president obama has since spoken to ukraines president and malaysias Prime Minister pledging u. S. Support to determine exactly what happened. If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice. Reporter u. S. Officials say theyve not determined who shot the plane down but ukrainian officials are not pulling punches. They blame not just prorussian separatists, they blame russia and one piece of evidence they use is an intercepted phone communication at the time this plane was shot down between, they say, a prorussian separatist and a russian intelligence agent describing that they shot this plane down and then even as theyre realizing it was a passenger plane, as it hit the ground, pretty alarming evidence coming out of the Ukrainian Government tonight. Jim sciutto, thank you very much. The latest on the investigation as it is beginning. Nic robertson is on the ground in kiev for us tonight. What do you know, nic . Reporter well, rescue and investigation officials have only been allowed through to the crash site in the last seven hour ors so. The Ukrainian Government doesnt control the area there. Were told that five teeps were allowed through to that area seven hours ago. They say they are being hampered because the debris is strewn over a large area. Theyre being hampered by armed groups in the area that are getting in the way of an investigation. Weve seen on pictures already a contamination of the crime scene, if you will, theres can pictures of people standing on parts of the wrecked aircraft. Those intercepted phone conversations weve heard Ukrainian Security chief and the ukrainian president talking about this evening that are intercepted they say between separatists and what were told here are the russian handlers saying that some parts of the aircraft have already been looted and taken away and put in peoples yard. So you have questions right now about the contamination of the crime scene, the jurisdiction of the crime scene here, which clearly is not firmly in the hands of the ukrainian authorities. The ukrainian president says he welcomes international involvement, wants the dutch and malaysian officials to be involved in an International Investigation, its difficult to see at this point how that can proceed easily and quickly in these current circumstances. Nic robertson, thank you very much. I mean, that is hard to imagine people taking pieces of this airplane to put them in their yard. Joining me phil mudd, mary schiavo and retired general spider marx, military analyst. We dont know who is responsible. But in terms of the allegations of the intercepted phone call that purportedly is between prorussian separatists and their russian handlers. This is a war zone. Its a shocking act. Who could have done it . Sounds like hes obviously not hearing me. So let me put that question to you, general marks, in terms of pure capability, who could have done this . The ukrainians have the surfacetoair capabilities that the russians have, theyve been allied for a period of time. The russians have it, the ukrainians have it. It can reach up to 72,000 feet, so it would put it in the range of the capability. Clearly this rests with the initial finding will be russias got some explaining to do. And i think well find that out here very, very shortly. Look, theres going to be signals intelligence, theres going to be an i. R. Signature, infrared, and well be able to do additional analysis on all that here very quickly. So intent is going to be so crucial. I know we have phil here with us now. It was not on its usual route, which is important to emfa soiz, there was weather. It was flying north of its regular course, near an area the faa had warned airlines to avoid because of the conflict between russia and ukraine. Someone who has the ability to fire a surfacetoair missile and take a jet out at 35,000 feet, is it possible this person wouldnt have known this was a commercial jet . I think thats possible. What well find is if these missiles were transferred to somebody who knew how the fire the missile but was not plugged into air defense systems, they might have mistaken the aircraft for something that they wanted to hit, for example, a Ukrainian Military aircraft. One thing spider said that i wanted to pick up on, the focus has been on a slivy of intelligence. A heat signature or radar signature. Theres a huge piece of intelligence we dont know but im sure will be on the president s desk tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Is tha is are people talking on the radio. Do we have human sources in the ukrainian opposition. Theres a whole pattern of intelligence you might see that might give you other signals beyond radar o a heat signature. Mary, i want to show you a the plane as it hit the ground. The video we have. Huge pieces of plane debris with the flames, then huge pieces of plane debris are on the ground. What do you see that shows surfacetoair or what might have happened when you see the debris . It looks like you had a midair explosion, either a surfacetoair missile or a bomb on board. Im not suggesting that here. A sight like pan am 103 and the wide dispersion of the debris. You find pieces that are completely intact. I worked midair explosions where you have like somebodys purse or handbag comes down perfectly or a pass port comes down perfectly yet other things are completely destroyed. So the randomness of it certainly suggests an inflight breakup. Weve seen piles of luggage completely intact on the ground. Weve chosen not to show this because its disturbing but there are bodies that are completely intact. Looks like someone had just crumpled on to the ground. Theres the luggage that shows what im talking about. How does a plane come down 35,000 feet and you see luggage intact. Those are likely ejected from the plane. We saw this in 2001, two of the ones in the world trade center, we found things that were intact, luggage, passports, then other folk who were never found at all. This random hit or miss that suggests an inflight breakup. And some pieces fell to the earth unburned and undestroyed. If this was a surfacetoair missile that u. S. Sources are saying that it was, would there have been any warning to the pilot, the crew, the passengers . Boy, i dont think thered be much. I assume well get some of that off the flight recorder. Thats one reason that taking care of the crime scene is so critical. You are going to want to make sure it doesnt get in the hand of people who either destroy it, make it disappear or alter it. But given how fast the surfacetoair missile is going and that aircraft is going, that there would be much warning to that pilot. The person who fired this, i mean, this has been a fear that weve heard about in commercial aviation for a long time, that terror groups or groups of malintents could use surface to air missiles to take down a jet. What does the fact that this was successful say to the flying public . Commercial aircraft are normally not equipped at all with whats called i. F. F. , to identify friend or foe. You can transpond whether youre flying military or civilian. When youre in a commercial aircraft and youre in a hot spot or in an area thats in extremism for some reason certainly this capability can be on the ground. But generally what you see is these transporter launchers, this type of capability is part of an enterprise. Messages and radar signals are sent and transponded and transferred around so that a single rocket or missile can be launched, but the direction comes from someplace else. To have this in an individuals hand or a single kind of an entity to engage indicates that they are disconnected, that the capability still exists and certainly can migrate around. I think this is extremely rare. Clearly what the United States needs to do is put a fullcourt press in terms of the Intel Community as phil has suggested, around this so the u. S. Can respond immediately and very strongly in terms of stating what their belief is. Thanks to all of you. We need to emphasize we dont yet know how Many Americans were on board this plane. Thats just one example. Well be talking about the missile that brought down flight 17. What we know about what it might have been capable of doing and the flight path, and how many other planes, there were american planes, in this area. We have those pictures to show you on radar. How many planes were around when this happened. A pretty shocking picture. Our other breaking story israel launching a major ground offensive into gaza. 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Breaking news on the Malaysia Airline flight that was shot down in ukraine killing all 295 people op board. An american official says the plane was flying in an altitude of about 33,000 feet when it was hit by a surfacetoair missile. You can see the debris in this video falling from the sky. Ukraines foreign minister pins the blame on prorussian separatists in the eastern part of the country saying they used a russianmade Missile System to shoot the 777 out of the sky. So far no one has claimed responsibility. The spokesman for Vladimir Putin said talk of russian involvement is stupidity. Tom foreman, what kind of missile shot this plane down. What missile can take down a passenger jet flying at 33,000 feet in midflight at 500plus miles an hour. There are several candidates but the one were looking at most closely is a single type out there that seems to be attracting the most attention. Lets look at the lay of the land because this is what investigators will have to do. The plane took off from amsterdam heading to kuala lumpur, will fly all afternoon and over the night. This is roughly where were talking about it in terms of its position, 33,000 feet in the air and at the same time about 30 miles away on ground from the russian border down here. Thats the relative position. So what could reach that high and do it . You cant do it with one of those shoulderheld missiles. You need something much more like this. This is the buk antimissile defense system. Were showing it here pretty much life sized. This is a state of the art system. Its manned by four people, highly mobile, can set up and fire in about five minutes. It can acquire a target and release a missile in about 22 second and just as quickly pack up and move on. So lets talk about this or Something Like it as a candidate for doing Something Like this because youre going to have to have a very robust system to reach that high. What do we know about the miseymiseye missiles it fires . We know theyre powerful and very good. Each is 16 feet long. Were showing is it a little bit short here, not its full size. It would weigh 1500 pounds, has a war head of 154 pounds of high explosives. Terribly, terribly powerful. And it has guidance all the way into its target. Doesnt actually have to hit the target. Just has to get near it and blow up with all of that force. Look at this last number because this really matters. The speed, 2,684 miles per hour. More than three times the speed of sound. By comparison, a plane like this, yeah, its traveling 500, 600 miles per hour. No match at all for Something Like this. You could fire this from 30 miles away and within 40 seconds it would be on target. The people in this plane including the crew, if this is the type of missile fired at e them, they wouldnt even see it coming before it was on them. Tom foreman, thank you very much. Let me bring now back retired Major General spider marks along with Cnn International correspondent Nick Paton Walsh who has reported extensively on the rebels. Youve seen the types of military equipment that the groups have, and you just heard tom reporting on all the details of what this buk missile would be able to do, how difficult to operate. Could the people that youve met with there, these groups, have pulled Something Like this off . Hard to really say. I think its clear something of that Technology Like the buk, you would have to have well trained people to operate it. The people weve met, the militia, theyre rag tag, a lot have old military experience and thats ground streettostreet fighting rather than technology canal stuff to run Something Like that. The weapons theyve had, things have changed enormously. A lot of heavy weapons have flooded in. But the video youve seen of lighter artillery even ground rocket launchers are nothing of the scale of the buk. Videos show one that separatists claim theyve got hold of in the past week. We cant clarify that. Thats social media. This was given to the russians by ukraine you have to be asking why. Their relations are very bad. Decrying the lack of russian help. Would you chance giving them Something Like the buk that can take down a civilian airliner. Interesting that you question that, prorussian separatists, russian government, that link would make sense. Important that you the raise that caution there. We have animation that actually shows how the buk missile would work. This is not from today. This is something the russian government put out to show the power of this particular missile. Youre not watching what happened today but youre watching it take down an aircraft. It strikes the jet, shortly thereafter you have an impact and that fighter jet in this case explodes. If separatists could pull off this kind of an attack with a missile this sophisticated, how concerned s