I have an app called “Flightradar24” that shows real time graphics of airline air traffic over any airspace, including the Ukraine. It runs on an iPad.
There is no reason for this “mistake”.
Considering the language and characterizations, this article is written from the alternate reality of Moscow. Case in point, NATO spotted Buk systems on the border and training going on in their use two weeks ago. They publickly confirmed Russkie officers were training the so calles rebels. The system was then seen traveling to the shooting area and recorded multiple times, even by the separatists themselves who bragged about it and later took credit for downing the airline. The same system was then recorded fleeing back to Russia.
But then this idiot on the blog wants to have it both ways. They don’t have it, but if they did it wasn’t their fault.
Do you think we are all that stupid here, Renfield???
Thanks, first article that makes sense. I realize that our government, particularly the president, has decided that Putin is the bad guy, and that we all need to follow lock-step, but I make MY OWN evaluations, on a case-by-case basis.
In this case, the SA-11 system has been around since 1979, so they were DEFINITELY deployed in Ukraine in the 1980s and almost certainly kept by Ukraine after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The only weapons given back to Moscow back then were nukes.
So the weapons used almost certainly were Ukrainian, the only question is that did the rebels have some of them when they busted off from the government, or did the Ukrainian government shoot the plane down.
If I had to guess, probably the rebels...but my bigger question then becomes WHY THE HELL WERE PASSENGER PLANES FLYING OVERHEAD, in a combat zone where aircraft were being shot down?
Yes, if you are a 25 year old woman, you are certainly entitled to walk alone, through LaHood, for several miles at 2 AM to get to downtown Baltimore. But if you get attacked, YES, it is the attacker to blame...but don’t be surprised if people ask you why you were out there and saying (behind your back) that it was not a very smart move.
My reading on the SA-11 is that it would need an early warning radar unit with it. It is a radar-guided missile and the target radar would have a range of about 20 miles. That means they have an engagement area of about 40 miles if the airplanes flies right over the top of the launcher. Smaller engagement are the further the airplane is away from the launcher. The plane was probably going around 600mph. That is 10 miles a minute. That puts the plane in the engagement area for four minutes if it is flying right over the top of the launcher. My reading says that it takes a crew five minutes to prepare to fire. If the plane is in and out of the engagement area in four minutes, then it’s unlikely a crew could get off a shot without having an early warning radar.
That leads me to think it was Ukraine or Russia.
The author of the article is correct that Ukraine is probably the only one to have a somewhat plausible reason to intentionally shoot down a foreign airliner. But, the British press has been reporting that there was a Ukrainian military transport aircraft in the area.
I think the most logical explanation is that the pro-Russian rebels accidentally shot this airliner down thinking it was a Ukrainian military transport. It was either a lucky shot, or the Russians warned them. I don’t believe in luck.
Ukrainian army has been "decimated" since March, yet keep pushing the separatists back. Took back Mariupol, and Sloviansk/Kromatorsk 2 weeks ago. Nearing Luhansk. Although, Ukrainians are now taking heavier losses as Russians are shooting Grad missiles from across the border.
western Ukrainians protesting against the war, are mothers and wives protesting not the war, but for the soldiers to be rotated out of the combat zone, some of the soldiers have been in there for 2-3 months