At 30,000 to 40,000 feet, the cruise altitude of commercial aircraft on long-haul flights is believed to be safely out of the range of shoulder-fired missiles. Last week, however, while cruising at 33,000 feet over an internationally approved air corridor over the conflict zone near the border of Ukraine and Russia, Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down.
The culprit is believed to be a long-range Buk surface-to-air missile system, which is mounted on several vehicles with radar and tracking equipment sophisticated enough to shoot down cruise missiles. Until last week, Ukrainian rebels were content to use shoulder-fired missiles. Three days before MH 17 was shot down, however, a Ukrainian Antonov An-26 military transport plane flying at 21,000 feet went down over the same conflict zone, with the rebels claiming credit for it.
The downing of the Antonov raised concern that the rebels had developed their own long-range missiles, or had received them from Russia, or worse, that the missile was an SA-11 fired from Russia itself. Like the SA-11, the Buk is Russian-made.
From the moment MH 17 was knocked out of the sky, international suspicion has focused on Russia. Attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to pin the blame on Ukraine’s government have fallen flat. Reports said that before MH 17 went down, Moscow had called for the air corridor over the conflict zone to be closed. But it was not closed when MH 17 flew over the airspace.
The Boeing 777 commercial plane looks different from the Ukrainian Antonov military transport, and there are international protocols to be followed if a civilian flight is to be shooed away by combatants from a war zone.
Russia is not even a combatant or secret rebel supporter in Ukraine – or at least that’s what Moscow has been saying since the armed rebellion erupted. The tragic fate of MH 17 provides the strongest indications yet of deep Russian involvement in the conflict. Bereaved families in 12 countries including the Philippines are demanding justice. Russia must come clean to dispel growing perceptions that it either provided the weaponry or itself launched the missile that doomed Malaysia Airlines flight 17.