Aviation authorities around the world, including here in the u. S. Are telling airlines not to fly over this area. Lufthansa, delta and others are avoiding it. We have Team Coverage tonight. Mark matthews has reaction from the bay areas ukrainian community. We begin with steven stock. One of the concerns, this route has been deemed safe but recently its been unsafe. Thats exactly right, raj. We pieced together flight paths over europe dating back over this area over the last several weeks. Though Many Airlines appear to have avoided ukraine altogether, several airlines, including malaysia air, continued to fly over the country regularly despite the conflict there on the ground. Despite the fact that at least one cargo plane had already been shot out of the same sky in the same region, less than a week ago. The pictures show the aftermath of what u. S. Officials now believe was a missile strike on the boeing 777 flying at 33,000 feet. Data from the internet site, flight aware shows the
Investigators, including a special u. S. Team are awaiting access to this horrific crash site. Here is what we know at this hour. Keep in mind, the story is change big the hour. The u. S. Confirms a surfacetoair missile struck a Malaysian Airlines jetliner over ukraine. This is near the russian border. Nearly 300 passengers have been killed. Families of the passengers are still being contacted. We have multiple reports tonight. Lets begin with nbcs peggy bunker and the latest on this investigation. Peggy . Reporter well, good evening to you. For the second time in just four months, a Malaysia Airlines 777 yesterday meets a tragic end. This time 298 lives have been lost. The plane originated in amsterdam, flying over towards the russianukrainian border on a flight to kuala lumpur. Three hours in controllers said they lost contact with the plane. Then came the reports of a fireball this the sky. This is all that is left of Malaysia Airlines flight 17, charred and smoldering in a burned o
Situation. The secretary is of course aware of these reports. Were seeking additional information. Good evening. Im ama daetz in for cheryl jennings. Im larry beil. A missile fired from the ground brought down flight 17. 298 people on board, 3 infants have just been added to the death toll. We do not have confirmation of how many, if any, americans were on board though the guess is somewhere around 25. Most of the passengers were europeans, on a flight from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. Witnesses reported seeing a rocket blast hit the plane when it was above eastern ukraine. Parts of the plane and bodies are scattered up to ten miles from the main crash site. Ukraine security blames russian separatists for the attack and they plan to submit phone calls reported as evidence of a plot and emergency United Nations meeting tomorrow. Russian president Vladimir Putin said today, ukraine is to blame because of the unrest in that area. President obama talked to putin as well as ukraines president
If it turns out russia is involved the president will are v. To consider a stronger stance. Wayne freedman has more about the crash and its implications. Reporter the flight from amsterdam to kuala lumpur takes more than 11 hours. It is a journey so long the plane would have landed just about one hour ago, the passengers might not even have their bags yet. Instead, we have an International Airline disaster with big ramifications. This is the first image most of the world saw from todays tragedy in ukraine, a plume of black smoke destined to become as iconic and repeated as lockerbie scotland or Korean Airlines 007 or any other airline disaster. An event playing out on multiple levels worldwide. Horrified. I thought it was a tragedy of enormous proportion and the next step in the evolution of this conflict. Reporter for ukrainians, even local ones, its the we told you so coming back to haunt. A conflict between ukraine, the kremlin, and russian separatists costing 295 innocence lives, a