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Thursday, 17 July 2014

A tragedy foretold

Minutes after receiving a newsflash on my smartphone that a Malaysian airline flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur had been shot down over eastern Ukraine, I checked FlightRadar24.com. The area was now being given a wide berth by planes flying east-west...

Below: Malaysian Airbus A380 flight MH3 flying from London to Kuala Lumpur diverts south, presumably alerted as to the fate of flight MH17.


Below: Thai Airways flight TG916 from Bangkok to London Heathrow swings south of Mariupol before reverting to a western course once clear of the danger zone


What the world should be asking is why the civil aviation authorities did not take urgent steps on Monday night, after the shooting down of the Ukrainian transport plane, to divert passenger flights crossing east-west over this troubled part of the world.

Utterly dreadful and needless loss of human life; unspeakable pain in the hearts of the victims' loved ones.

And who fired the ground-to-air missile - and whether it was intended as a provocation.

Looks like FlightRadar24.com's server's can no longer cope with traffic.



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5 comments:

  1. sigismundo17 July 2014 at 20:59

    Unbelievable! Such a sad, sad fate for so many innocent people.

    What kind of inertia must exist in the CAA headquarters? Presumably they were on their summer hols? And what about the managers of the individual airlines?

    Unbelievable. Heads will surely roll for this, but it is nothing compared to the loss to those poor families

    ReplyDelete
  2. Malarka17 July 2014 at 21:35

    Unbelievable indeed. LOve your blog though, Bob B sent me a link to it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sigismundo17 July 2014 at 23:24

    This is a 9/11 moment for Ukraine, but of course nothing will happen as everyone is on their summer holidays...

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  4. Alexander20 July 2014 at 14:05

    The European Union now shows it’s true colours: not even an arms embargo.
    Money seems tob e the most important thing. And the French soon tob e built aircraft carriers for Russia can also be used against the EUSSR states. All paid for by the Europeans them selfs, and the winter will soon be here again..
    Or is it Molotov-Ribbentrop2.0, with Merkel’s secret communist past ?

    Regards, Alexander

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown21 July 2014 at 11:23

    Saw you on Newsnight, nice to put a voice to the words I have read for the past few years.

    ReplyDelete