A Malaysian Airlines 'plane has been shot out of the sky over Ukraine!

On Thursday evening we had the shocking news that a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, carrying 298 passengers and crew had crashed over the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine. It was suggested that the aircraft had in fact been shot out of the sky, possibly either by a ground-to-air missile or by a jet fighter and today Barack Obama, President of the United States, announced that in all probability it was the result of the former, which he suggested originated in the pro-Russian rebel held eastern part of Ukraine. However, it appears that the Russian Government (or those perhaps acting on its behalf) have taken issue with certain aspects of how this outrage is being reported, by 'editing' the dedicated Wikipedia page for this incident, according to an article in the Telegraph. It may therefore be that establishing a widely-accepted analysis of what occurred will be very political as well as technical. The fact, however, that a British journalist working for the Russian government-funded RT television channel decided today to resign from her job because of what she alleges is political manipulation in the way this story is being reported is perhaps an indication that the Russian government has its "dirty hands" (e&oe) all over this! This Guardian report indicates that Ukraine rebel forces, thought to be responsible for this atrocity, are hastily covering up traces of their actions, whilst denying international access to key evidence which might establish the truth.

The Malaysian Airlines flight (MH17) was on a regular route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur; for around 100 of those passengers this was apparently to be merely a transit point for an onward flight to Australia where they were scheduled to attend an AIDS conference. Latest information is that around 200 of the passengers were of Dutch nationality, with nine or ten other nationalities represented, including Australian, British, Canadian and American. Apparently there were 10 British nationals aboard, according to the latest information I have seen.

It may be recalled that another Malaysian Airlines flight (MH370), flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (edited on Monday 11th August 2014 - I had originally and erroneously mentioned this was a flight originating in Bangkok, I've no idea why I made this elementary mistake), disappeared some months ago, so far without trace, so the reason for its disappearance remains a mystery. This later incident is quite different in nature, but it seems that this may nevertheless be factored into potential future passengers' willingness to fly with this airline, to the extent that it is being suggested that it may not survive, given that it has apparently been loss-making for some years; many national or quasi-national airlines are loss-making, so Malaysian Airlines is not particularly unusual in this respect, but when potential customers begin to lose confidence in their likelihood of surviving a flight with it, the game is just perhaps up! Harsh undoubtedly, but understandable.

Finally, and distressingly (at a personal level), I had an exchange yesterday with a regular Twitter correspondent based locally (in Nairn) in the course of which he seemed to assume automatically that this whole tragedy was in fact a plot by the US and it was somehow responsible for it - a more deluded load of tosh I find it difficult to imagine! You can examine this whole exchange in my Twitter timeline if you have the inclination and stomach for it. I am under no illusions about the faults of US (specially under the last if not the current) administrations, but even the baleful Presidency of former President G W Bush had slightly more credibility than that of former KGB operative and current Russian President Vladimir Putin; I do occasionally watch the RT television 'propaganda' channel, but apart from sometimes interesting nature programmes, I place little credence in anything I see there. But those of a left-wing persuasion in the UK and US and some other western countries seem to be unusually gullible when it comes to the propaganda pumped out by the gangster regime which governs Russia. The resignation today of a British journalist at that channel is not the first time a western journalist working for it has found it impossible to continue to acquiesce in the lying propaganda it specialises in; only a few months ago another western journalist (of US origin on that occasion) reached her limit and decided she could no longer work for this outfit. Useful idiots have been a regular feature of those reporting or working for the former USSR and now the Russian Federation over many decades - it may not be the total "evil empire" alluded to by former US Presdient Ronald Reagan in a whimsical not-for-broadcast aside which was perhaps inadvertently spoken into a live microphone, but I am nevertheless amazed and appalled at the credulity of some left-leaning westerners who seem prepared to place credence in the most absurd notions concocted by the USSR/Russian propaganda machine, specially when it gives an opportunity to attribute the most base motives to their own [western] governments - I am not saying that western governments don't indulge in their own misinformation propaganda of course, I'm sure they do this regularly when it suits them, but is it too much to expect these left-wing stooges to apply a bit of critical analysis to the propaganda regularly pumped out by RT? I'm torn between disgust, despair and incredulity at the credulity of some of these people!