Even though it does not happen with alarming regularity,
will the recent Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 shootdown incident change yet
again the current civil aviation safety measures in currently place?
By: Ringo Bones
Fortunately for us civilians who frequently fly the
increasingly not-so-friendly skies since the 9/11 Islamist terror attacks,
shootdown incidents are still a rarity and don’t occur with alarming regularity
as portrayed in most Hollywood action movies. Civil aviation shootdown
incidents have happened before and even served as the catalyst of the tragic
April 1994 Rwandan Genocide, it seems that such incidents only seem to provide
the general perception that the flying civilian public had served as “unwitting
pawns” in geopolitical power struggles since the Cold War.
In putting a human face to this tragic incident, the
shootdown of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Boeing 777 back in Friday July
18, 2014 while flying its Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur route over the airspace of
Eastern Ukraine largely under control by pro-Russia separatist rebels since
February 2014 involved the deaths of 280 passengers and 15 crewmembers. Most of
the passengers – 189 of them – are Dutch nationals on their way to vacation one
of which is a leading and pioneering HIV / AIDS medical researcher Dr. Joep
Lange together with 100 other leading HIV / AIDS researchers. At present, other
passengers’ nationalities who perished in the tragic shootdown are 28
Australian nationals, 23 Malaysians, 6 Britons, 4 Germans, 3 Filipinos and 3
infants.
The latest initial investigations so far have revealed that
the most likely anti-aircraft weapons system used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH17 Boeing 777 is probably the Soviet era BUK surface-to-air missile
which has become de rigueur air defense weapons system of choice by former
Warsaw-Pac member countries. The BUK consists of four 16-foot long 1,500-lb
missiles with a 150-ib warhead and launch system mounted atop a full track
armored vehicle and is capable of speeds up to 2,684 mph which can easily make
short shrift of a typical civilian passenger plane which only can fly around
600 mph and an incoming BUK missile can only be “seen” by a pilot in a cockpit
equipped with advanced sensors oft the preserve of advanced fighter jets.
The BUK missile is often used to shoot down planes flying at
altitudes high enough to avoid man-portable anti-aircraft weapons systems like
the famed Stinger. As an anti-aircraft weapons system developed near the end of
the Cold War, the BUK is “user-friendly” enough to be effectively used by
anyone with the brainpower to be able to tie one’s shoes while chewing gum at
the same time but takes a bit longer training time to be able to accurately
differentiate civilian from military targets. A modified BUK missile launcher
system was modified with a high-speed Schottky Rectifier equipped Mainland
Chinese Nanjing Radar system that brought down a US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk
stealth plane during the 1999 operation to capture Balkan strongman Slobodan
Milosevic.
Though questions are being asked why Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH17 was flying over a “hostile warzone” but the flight-path it took was
a well trodden designated Europe to Asia international flight path L980 which
the German airliner Lufthansa also uses but British Airways has since shied
away from since the February 2014 Eastern Ukraine conflict initiated by
pro-Russia separatist militias. While a typical
altitude flown by a typical civilian passenger plane at 30,000 to 40,000 feet
is way above the range of most man-portable rocket launchers that are in the
hands of most terrorist militia groups. Given that the pro-Russia separatist
militias manage to hold a sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons system like the
BUK and the intelligence so far gathered by secret American operatives imbedded
in Eastern Ukraine had shown that the militants actually made the mistake of
shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 as the recently deleted text
messages between a pro-Russian militant named “Greek” and “Major” revealed a
“Tweet” of the screw-up. And diversions due to the tragic shootdown incident
could make Europe to Asia flights take longer and cost more due to increased
fuel usage.
And investigation of the crash site has since became a
contentious issue since the crash site has not been quarantined and been
trampled around by both the pro-Russian militants and the nearby townsfolk.
OSCE monitors trying to make an initial investigation of the crash site were
even given warning shots by local pro-Russian militants after just spending 75
minutes on the crash site. In short, international investigators have so far
been denied free unfettered access of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the
Ukrainian government for “responsibility” of the crash, such rhetoric only
reminds the world of the legal case of a burglar suing the homeowner for
medical compensation after the burglar broke his leg trying to scale the
homeowner’s fence. And further rhetoric of the Russian strongman only seems
like him digging a hole for him and the pro-Russian militants as war criminals
straight into the International Court of Justice.
Since the Cold War began, high profile shootdown cases of civilian
airliners by the former Soviet Union and her allies had almost started an
all-out thermonuclear exchange between the United States and the then Soviet
Union. Back in July 23, 1954, a Cathay Pacific Douglas DC4 - known as Cathay Pacific Flight VR-HEU - was
brought down by anti-aircraft fire by the Mainland Chinese People’s Liberation
Army Air Force off the coast of Hainan Island, People’s Republic of China,
killing 13 passengers and 6 crew shot with anti-aircraft incendiary rounds.
Fortunately, 9 people survived as the plane made an emergency landing.
And before the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 back
in September 1, 1983 that nearly triggered a thermonuclear World War III, the
Korean Air Lines Flight 902 shootdown incident by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 fighter
plane on April 20, 1978 near Murmansk, Russia after it accidentally violated
the country’s airspace and failed to respond to Soviet interceptors only gives
the impression to the rest of the world that Russians in charge of monitoring
the security of their airspace are – then and now – trigger happy yahoos. Two
passengers were killed after the Sukhoi Su-15 fighter plane strafed the Korean
Air Lines Flight 902 plane with its 25-mm guns. Fortunately, 107 passengers
survived after the plane made an emergency landing on a frozen lake.
On the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, authorities
of the then Soviet Union only admitted to “accidentally” shooting down the
plane 20 days after the tragic incident. And a historical footnote of the
tragedy now probably largely forgotten, the black box of the Korean Air Lines
Flight 007 was “hidden” by Soviet authorities and was only returned back in
1993 when the West friendly Boris Yeltsin became president of post-Soviet
Russia.
