Originally posted by brianw999
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"KIEV—Ukraine intelligence officials said they knew three days before the downing of Malaysia Airlines*Flight 17 that rebels in the east of the country possessed sophisticated air-defense systems capable of*felling a jetliner at altitudes in excess*of where the*Boeing*BA*777 was flying."
So tell me again why they said it's safe. So tell me again what they shared with Eurocontrol.
"...the AN-30 and ILl-6 were shot down by MANPADS, which stands for man-portable air-defense systems, a small missile launcher you carry on your shoulder. It can only fire to an altitude of about 11,500 feet, but MH17 was flying at 33,000 feet. That's way, way outside of the range of shoulder-fired MANPADS missiles.That's why, at first, people were wondering if rebels even had the capability to shoot down a high-flying commercial airliner like MH17. But there was another incident just on Monday, July 14, that did not get very much attention at the time. That day, over eastern Ukraine, an Antonov AN-26 Ukrainian military transport plane was hit by a missile while flying over eastern Ukraine — at 21,000 feet altitude. That's far beyond the range of a shoulder-fired system like the MANPADS."
THIS WAS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE!
Ukraine ATC obviously knew. Certainly Eurocontrol knew. Certainly the airlines knew.
Stop using apologist words like "hindsight" and call it what it is.
Many airlines including *Qantas, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Air France, Korean Air, Air Berlin, Asiana, and China Air*saw the risk and paid the price to route around. This is called corporate responsibility. Capitalism is supposed to reward this behaviour. Fly these airlines. They give a damn about safety.
Other airlines prioritized money over safety and many people died. The "hindsight" excuse only works if it wasn't painfully obvious. Ukraine officials, Eurocontrol, and Malaysian Airlines were derelict in their duties.
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