Browse content similar to 17/07/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This is BBC World News Today with me, Daniela Ritorto. | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
A Malaysian Airlines plane with 295 people on board | :00:08. | :00:10. | |
's We will build live across the world assessing the impact of this | :00:11. | :00:20. | |
disaster. -- we will be alive. Pictures appear to show | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
the plane after it came down Debris is seen falling from the | :00:26. | :00:35. | |
darkened sky in the moments after the crash. | :00:36. | :00:37. | |
Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it lost contact with flight MH17 | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
from Amsterdam which was en route to Kuala Lumpur. | :00:41. | :00:53. | |
Hello and welcome to this special coverage. | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
A Malaysia Airlines plane with nearly 300 people | :00:58. | :00:59. | |
on board has crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border. | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
There are claims it was shot down - but Ukraine | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
and pro-Russian separatists are both denying responsibility. | :01:06. | :01:07. | |
There has been fighting on the Ukrainian-Russian border | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
since March, after the overthrow of the Ukrainian government. | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
Flight MH1-7 took off from Amsterdam just after midday local time, | :01:15. | :01:17. | |
Its flight path took it over Ukraine's Donetsk region | :01:18. | :01:24. | |
and it came down near the village of Grabovo. | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
Four months ago, another Malaysia Airlines plane is | :01:30. | :01:31. | |
believed to have crashed with over 200 people on board. | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
With the latest our correspondent Richard Galpin. | :01:37. | :01:46. | |
A plume of smoke rising into the sky in eastern Ukraine this afternoon. | :01:47. | :01:54. | |
Local people said it was a plain which had just crashed. There is no | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
confirmation this was the Malaysian airline which came down with almost | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
300 people on board. Eyewitnesses in the region say that they have seen | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
burning wreckage and bodies on the ground. Malaysian Airlines quickly | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
put out this message on social media. | :02:15. | :02:23. | |
The manufacturer, Boeing, said it was investigating. Flight | :02:24. | :02:29. | |
#ColourWhite had taken from Amsterdam and was reported to be | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
cruising at more than 30,000 feet eastern Ukraine, and area of intense | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
conflict between separatists and Ukrainian military. The pro-Russian | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
separatists control parts of eastern Ukraine and have done for several | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
months. It has shot down military planes and helicopters in the past. | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
They are known to have short-range anti-aircraft missiles and according | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
to some reports, have also been seen with heavy weapons. We are talking | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
about something every significant. The secessionist have used tanks. | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
Bigger not find those lying on the street. They have supplies of | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
relatively sophisticated weapons. It would be damaging for them and the | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
brush in case if they have got the weapons which can shoot down | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
civilian aircraft, but even more damaging if it turns out that the | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
missile, if there was one, came from the Russian side of the border. | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
These unverified photographs apparently show some of the wreckage | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
of the Malaysian plane. The separatists then shooting it down, | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
blaming the Ukrainian military. But at the moment, it is still not known | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
if it was brought down by military action. | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
The BBC's Oleg Boldyrev joins us from Moscow. | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
We have heard in that report, we still do not know what happened. Was | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
it shot down? What can you tell us from Moscow? The official reaction | :04:02. | :04:09. | |
has been muted. President Putin has expressed his condolences. The | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
separatists are denying that they have weapons capable of doing that. | :04:14. | :04:21. | |
One of the crucial questions is who gets to the crash site, all the | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
experts. Initially the separatists say that they will allow | :04:27. | :04:28. | |
investigators to come and investigate. The latest comment we | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
see is that the local police, which are loyal to the separatist cause, | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
will conduct initial investigations. Everyone who is familiar with the | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
procedure is not doubt that the policemen will be capable of doing | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
that, local policemen. The Russian ministry said it is ready to go and | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
help with this, but they have said to the authorities in Kiev, who will | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
go to the area of the conflict. That is the biggest question of all. | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
Another question we are all asking, did the rail -- did the rebels have | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
the hardware capable of bringing down a commercial jet flying at | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
10,000 metres? There is no set in stone confirmation that they did. | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
There have been reports which are hard to verify. The weaponry that | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
they have sometimes surpasses even the Ukrainian capabilities. There | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
have been so many reports of weapons from Russia, including modern | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
shooting systems and weapon systems crossing over to the rebel side in | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
eastern Ukraine. Speculation is that they might have this, but no one has | :05:39. | :05:45. | |
seen it all documented it or put it on paper and presented it to the | :05:46. | :05:54. | |
world. Anna Holligan joins us from Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport. What is | :05:55. | :06:04. | |
this scene there? It is now an unimaginable, painful wait for | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
relatives who are arriving at Schiphol airport. Nine hours ago, | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
passengers travelled through these gates to board a flight | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
#ColourWhite. Airport officials said the relatives and family members of | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
those on board that flight have been taken to a special area inside the | :06:22. | :06:24. | |
airport, separate from the other passengers, and we expect to hear | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
more from them later this evening. They are planning a press conference | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
to tell us more details. Do we know anything about the nationalities of | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
the Passion yours yet? -- passengers. We have seen reports on | :06:40. | :06:47. | |
Twitter that there were 23 Americans on board. It is assumed that what | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
Dutch Passion jazz. But it is still so early, so it is still breaking | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
news and man of those details have been confirmed. We have heard from | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
that Dutch Prime Minister who says he is returning from Brussels | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
immediately to deal with the situation. He is deeply shocked by | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
what has happened. We will be hearing more from him in the coming | :07:10. | :07:16. | |
days. We will come back to you again as well. | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
Malaysian airlines is holding a press conference in two hours time, | :07:21. | :07:30. | |
that is at 4am local time. That is what we understand. Local media is | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
reporting that the Prime Minister might be holding a press conference | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
shortly, but we cannot verify that just yet. So far, the information, | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
the official information we have been getting, has been limited. We | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
have seen senior ministers on twitter, expressing shock, saying | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
that they are working closely with the relevant ministries to handle | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
this issue. We understand that the transport Minister, who is currently | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
in Beijing, is on his way back to Kuala Lumpur or. The transport | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
minister was in Beijing to discuss the disappearance of the plane which | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
disappeared in March earlier this year, which of course, we still do | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
not know what happened to it. And it is fair to say that the reaction in | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
Asia on social media and even among my friends in the region has been | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
"not again" with Malaysian airlines, the cause of the memory of the | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
disappearance of that first plane, which is very fresh. I know that you | :08:37. | :08:49. | |
cover the disappearance of MH370. People around the world and the | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
region must be sane, not again. The circumstances are different, MH370 | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
disappeared in March and we do not know exactly what happened. There is | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
lots of speculation, which continues. With this one, we have | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
seen the blame game, if you like, speaking the correspondence around | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
the world. The Ukrainian government, the president of Ukraine, has said | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
this is a terrorist act. In the meantime, the rebels say that they | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
do not have any capacity to be able to shoot down such a plane. There | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
has been a lot of speculation, but at least we have got confirmation | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
from the Ukrainian government that the plane has crashed. And we are | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
getting some very disturbing images of the crash site, as well. As Anna | :09:37. | :09:44. | |
Holligan was saying from Amsterdam, there are reports of 23 US | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
passengers on board the plane which went down. The US State Department | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
has said that Washington could not yet confirmed those reports, but it | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
was urgently trying to obtain that information. We have seen the same | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
reports that you have, at this point. We do not have any confirmed | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
information about casualties, the cause, or additional details. | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
Thoughts and prayers go out to those on board, their families and loved | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
ones. We are closely monitoring the situation. The Secretary of State is | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
aware of these reports and we are seeking additional information. The | :10:22. | :10:29. | |
embassy in Kiev is in close contact with the authorities about this | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
incident but at the moment this is all the details that we have. | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
President Obama is about to speak. Let's see if we can join that. | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
Please, have a seat. It is wonderful to be back in Delaware. Before I | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
begin, obviously the world is watching reports of a grounded | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
passenger jet near the Russia-Ukraine border. It looked | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
like it might be a terrible tragedy. We are working to determine whether | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
American citizens were on board. That is our first priority. I have | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
directed a national security team to stay in contact with the Ukrainian | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
government. The United States will offer any assistance that we can to | :11:19. | :11:20. | |
help determine what happened, and why. As a country, our thoughts and | :11:21. | :11:28. | |
prayers are with all of the passengers and families, whoever and | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
wherever they call home. I would like to thank Jeremy Forrest | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
introduction. Give him a big round of applause. -- Jeremy, for his | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
introduction. speculation. Can we talk about | :11:42. | :12:25. | |
facts? The fact I will not there yet. That is the problem. We know | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
the background to this. There has been rising tension, there have been | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
a number of Ukrainian military aircraft which have been shot down. | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
Those have been at low heights. The suspicion is that pro-Russian rebels | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
have been using portable surface-to-air missiles, missiles | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
they can put on their shoulder, if they see a plane or helicopter, and | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
fire at it and shoot it down. This is different. This passenger jet was | :12:55. | :13:02. | |
flying at 30,000 feet, ten to limit is. It would be difficult to see | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
from the ground. You would have to have had a radar system to lock onto | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
that. You would have to have had a medium to long range surface to air | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
missile, of the kind that is either locked onto the ground are tracked | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
vehicle, and indeed, someone in the Ukraine believes it was a Buk | :13:22. | :13:31. | |
system, a Russian system, which has a radar on board. This looks | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
different to what has happened in the past. Clearly, what has been | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
shot down is different to what has been shot down in the past. The | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
targets have been military aircraft and helicopters, this is a civilian | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
airline, and it changes the situation is usually. There could be | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
dozens of countries involved with citizens on that plane who now want | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
answers. Watching pictures of the crash site and the aftermath. People | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
are asking, why are commercial airlines flying over a conflict | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
zone? Turkish airlines are now rewriting their planes. Shouldn't | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
they have done that before? There was a big difference between a | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
civilian aeroplane and the military aeroplane in the air, in that it is | :14:21. | :14:25. | |
not just about the height that they travel, it is about what they are | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
doing. Civilian passenger plane will be what is called squawking, | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
identifying itself, letting air traffic control, that -- letting | :14:36. | :14:43. | |
them know what height it is at, it will have an identification that is | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
known on the ground. If it is a military aircraft it will not have | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
that facility. It will still be identifiable to radar stations, but | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
it is very different. You would have thought, a civilian passenger plane, | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
it should not be a target. That is the assumption. This has clearly | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
changed things, and now airlines are saying that they will change their | :15:08. | :15:08. | |
ways because of this. people on board but we also have the | :15:09. | :15:23. | |
political situation on the ground in Ukraine, what happens next? People | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
are being very careful not to watch -- rush to judgement. It is a | :15:29. | :15:35. | |
mystery at the moment. People are not sure what exactly happens. There | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
is the possibility of a surface-to-air missile, speculation | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
that a fighter jet with a missile or even a terrorist attempt. People | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
will look at what has happened but we will be looking at the data. You | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
will have experts looking at satellite imagery and they will be | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
able to identify whether a surface-to-air missile was fired. | :16:01. | :16:06. | |
There will be limited radar information because neat tool do not | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
have radar is looking that far east. But there will be information to | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
firm up details and give up -- give an accurate assessment. This will be | :16:17. | :16:24. | |
very different. Civilians are involved. This does not just involve | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
Russia and Ukraine. It involves other countries like America and | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
other European countries as well. We will stop our analysis at the | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
moment. We want to hear from the Ukrainian president who has | :16:42. | :16:43. | |
described the downing of the plane as an act of terrorism and calls for | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
an international investigation. I have just concluded a conversation | :16:49. | :16:57. | |
with the Prime Minister of melons -- Prime Minister of the Netherlands. I | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
offered condolences. I would like to have an investigation into this act | :17:04. | :17:06. | |
of terrorism. We are not calling it an accident, but an act of | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
terrorism. Those are the words of the Ukrainian president. Let us | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
speak to an aviation specialists who joins us from our studio in | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
Salford, your immediate thoughts? This is an incident which has filled | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
me with a fair degree of shock and horror. The fact that a civil | :17:31. | :17:40. | |
airliner travelling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur or was | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
brought down in this fashion, one can only feel a sense of shock. We | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
jet ever have thought something like this could happen? Not in this day | :17:51. | :18:00. | |
and age, quite frankly. 20, 30, 40 years ago, may be. We did have | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
incidents like this long ago. But in this day and age with air traffic | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
control systems, with the ability to monitor who is where and anything | :18:12. | :18:20. | |
from that air traffic control system through to an iPhone for instance, | :18:21. | :18:27. | |
it beggars belief that an aircraft such as this has been brought down | :18:28. | :18:35. | |
in such a way. With commercial airlines have taken into account | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
when flying over that area that it is a conflict zone? It would not | :18:40. | :18:50. | |
have been Mr Savile on their radar. -- Nessus Adderley. They follow a | :18:51. | :19:03. | |
great circle route, the shortest distance between one airport and the | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
other. They would be operating along a well worn and well used YouTube -- | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
route which they had used for years. They would probably not give | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
consideration as to what is happening on the ground because we | :19:19. | :19:25. | |
did not know until two hours ago that the people down on the grounds | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
might have the sort of technology to target the civil airliner in such a | :19:33. | :19:40. | |
tragic fashion. If France, Turkish airlines, either flocked, they all | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
say they are avoiding eastern Ukraine which is prudent bats? | :19:47. | :19:55. | |
Present in deeds but there must be some questions to ask. -- Air | :19:56. | :20:04. | |
France. The central control for air traffic control for instance, asking | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
why there was zero detailed information to pass on to airlines | :20:10. | :20:12. | |
to point them in a different direction. Perhaps taking the route | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
further north, away from the conflict zone itself. Some of those | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
questions will be asked over the coming days. Thank you very much for | :20:24. | :20:31. | |
joining us. Let us recap what we are doing. It | :20:32. | :20:40. | |
was a Malaysia flight, MH17, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur or, | :20:41. | :20:48. | |
it took off just after noon. 295 people on board. 15 crew. Ukrainian | :20:49. | :20:58. | |
government, the President is saying that this is an act of terrorism. | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
Nobody has been able to confirm how this plane has come down. There is | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
speculation and finger-pointing that it was shot down. Let us speak now | :21:11. | :21:16. | |
to another expert. I'm joined now by Charles Hayman, | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
former editor of Jane?s World Armies and now Senior Defence | :21:21. | :21:22. | |
Analyst with the armed forces. Your immediate thoughts? With the | :21:23. | :21:32. | |
rebels have the necessary armoury to shoot down a commercial airliner? We | :21:33. | :21:40. | |
have to look at the balance of probabilities first of all. It looks | :21:41. | :21:49. | |
from the evidence so far, that are ground to air missile launcher was | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
used. We know that these missile launchers were on the infantry of | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
the Ukrainian government forces. It is quite possible that one or more | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
of these missile launchers were about -- were abandoned by Ukrainian | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
forces when they left rebel held areas. Most people are beginning to | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
think this was fired from a rebel held area. Also, because it was a | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
battlefield radar, as Jonathan Beale pointed out, the sophisticated air | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
traffic radar is that the Kiev government have got and the Russian | :22:30. | :22:35. | |
government have got, they would pick up civilian aircraft squawking all | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
the time. But something like this missile launcher, with its own | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
battlefield radar, which only pick up an aircraft and not the fact it | :22:46. | :22:53. | |
was a civilian aircraft. Putting the pieces into the jigsaw puzzle, it is | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
beginning to look as if this was fired from a separatist area and it | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
was fired from an old air defence system which did not identify the | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
aircraft as a civilian airliner. When the separatists denied | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
involvement, they say they have no air defence systems of this kind, | :23:16. | :23:22. | |
what do you say? That is right, they are denying there is but there is | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
evidence to say there was some tweeting coming out of the | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
separatist area saying we had just shot down another Ukrainian | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
government aircraft. The tweet source is the same tweet sources | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
which was boasting about shooting down a Ukrainian government aircraft | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
last week. So the separatists are under suspicion. It is unlikely BPF | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
government would want to do that. After the experiences with the | :23:55. | :24:00. | |
Korean airliner 25 years ago, the Russian government would be loath to | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
involve themselves in a crime of this magnitude. The Russians are | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
canny political operators. They do not tend to make mistakes like this. | :24:11. | :24:19. | |
Thank you very much indeed. Let us get the views of Simon Calder now. I | :24:20. | :24:26. | |
presume your initial reaction was one of shock and horror? Yes, I have | :24:27. | :24:33. | |
been looking at the warnings which were in place. Eight weeks ago the | :24:34. | :24:41. | |
American Federal Administration put out a warning to American pilots and | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
airlines saying exercise extreme caution in Ukraine. They were | :24:47. | :24:53. | |
warning about the area of Crimea and other parts of Crimea and the | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
Ukraine. They said these places were dangerous. Nobody of course was | :25:00. | :25:05. | |
expecting anything like this. For years there have been routine long | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
haul flights over areas of conflict. Airlines are predisposed to fly the | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
most direct route, if that takes them over places like Iraq, | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
Afghanistan and Libya and so on, or view is that the weaponry on the | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
ground is not sophisticated enough to endanger passenger aviation. Can | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
you put this in the historical conflict -- context for as? There is | :25:33. | :25:39. | |
a history of accidental shootings of passenger jets. September the 1st | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
1983, the Korean flight on a flight to New York Street Ofqual is over | :25:45. | :25:54. | |
the eastern edge of the soviet union and was shot down by a Soviet | :25:55. | :26:01. | |
fighter. -- Street of quarters. There was an Israeli aircraft on | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
route to divide which was shot down by an American warship in the Gulf. | :26:07. | :26:13. | |
That is held by some to be the cause of the Lockerbie attack which | :26:14. | :26:23. | |
happened, some see as revenge. While you have weaponry capable of | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
shooting dead aircraft, this will always be a threat. -- shooting down | :26:27. | :26:33. | |
aircraft. Shoulder launched missiles have always been an issue for | :26:34. | :26:41. | |
aviation experts, that has always been an issue... We have to leave it | :26:42. | :26:49. | |
there. You have been watching a special edition. Stay with us for | :26:50. | :26:57. | |
more. Hello there. If you have enjoyed the | :26:58. | :27:04. | |
sunshine today, you may find tomorrow to warm. This low pressure | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
is moving northwards through the night bringing a band of heavy, | :27:12. | :27:12. |