Latest news with #MH17
Metro
5 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
Russian passenger plane carrying 50 people vanishes mid-flight
A Russian passenger plane with nearly 50 people on board has gone missing near the border with China. The An-24 plane, operated by Angara airline, was bound for Tynda when it went missing over the Amur region in Eastern Russia. It was just a few kilometres away from its destination when it lost contact, Interfax and SHOT news outlets report. There are 40 passengers and six crew members on board. Emergency services told Interfax: 'The An-24 plane was flying the Khabarovsk-Blagoveshchensk-Tynda route. Near the final point, it failed to check in. There is no contact with it.' It comes after leading investigators blame Vladimir Putin for the downing of MH17 by Russian proxy forces over eastern Ukraine 11 years ago. Eliot Higgins spoke on the anniversary of the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with the loss of all 298 people onboard, including 10 British citizens. Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ Or you can submit your videos and pictures here. For more stories like this, check our news page. Follow on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here. MORE: British families sent wrong bodies after Air India crash MORE: Airline founded by UK millionaire 'parks' only plane — after two return flights MORE: easyJet's summer 2026 sale is here – these are the best destinations to book now
Metro
20-07-2025
- Climate
- Metro
Tsunami threat looms over Russia and Hawaii after series of earthquakes
A tsunami warning has been issued for parts of Russia after a series of earthquakes. Two powerful tremors – the larger with a magnitude of 7.4 – struck the sea near the Kamchatka Peninsula. The larger quake was at a depth of 12 miles and was 89 miles east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000. A few minutes earlier, a second one with a magnitude of 6.7 was recorded nearby. As a result, Hawaii has been put on a tsunami watch – a lesser threat than the warning issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The Russian Emergencies Ministry says tsunami of up to 60 centimeters is possible. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: War planes scrambled over Nato country after Russia launches latest barage MORE: Putin is 'a long-term threat to the freedom of Europe' MORE: Putin 'ultimately to blame' for MH17 crash killing 298 people
Metro
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Putin ‘ultimately to blame' for snuffing out 298 lives on downed MH17
Vladimir Putin ultimately bears responsibility for the downing of MH17 by Russian proxy forces over eastern Ukraine 11 years ago, a leading investigative journalist has said. Eliot Higgins spoke on the anniversary of the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with the loss of all 298 people onboard, including 10 British citizens. The crime was one of the grim milestones in a pattern of hybrid military aggression that tested the West's resolve and ultimately resulted in the all-out attack on Ukraine. Among those being remembered today is Richard Mayne, 20, a student who was on his way to Australia to begin studying as part of his University of Leeds course. Russians Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian pro-Moscow separatist Leonid Kharchenko have been handed life sentences over the atrocity by the District Court of the Hague but remain at large because Russia refuses to surrender them. Higgins, who founded Bellingcat, was among the open-source investigators who unravelled the circumstances of the tragedy amid a fog of disinformation emerging from Russia. He told Metro: 'Dubinsky and Kharchenko have been pretty quiet in the last few years, unlike Girkin. 'Girkin posted a lot of statements online that criticised Russia's military performance in Ukraine following the 2022 invasion, which resulted in him being imprisoned for four years in 2024 by the Russian government on extremism charges. 'I suspect he would have had an easier time in a Dutch prison. 'As for the responsibility of Putin and the Kremlin, it's clear that Putin allowed the transfer of heavy weapon systems from Russia into Ukraine, so while there's nothing to indicate he ordered MH17 to be shot down, he does bear responsibility for allowing those weapons to be sent to Eastern Ukraine along with Russian soldiers, both in terms of the attack on MH17, and the broader loss of life in the conflict.' Richard's dad Simon has spoken of the day he waved his son off at Birmingham Airport in what would be the last time they saw each other. His son, heading for a year studying in Australia, was due to fly to Amsterdam to catch MH17 onwards to Kuala Lumpur. But as the Boeing 777 travelled over the breakaway Donbas region of eastern Ukraine it was struck by a ground-to-air missile fired by separatists. The Hague-decreed act of murder on July 17, 2014, also claimed the life of Loughborough University student Ben Pocock, 20, from Bristol. Aside from the UK victims, 196 were Dutch with many from other countries, including 43 from Malaysia and 38 from Australia. Eighty were children. Bodies and wreckage landed in fields of sunflowers — which have become a symbol of the tragedy — near Hrabove in the area seized by the rebels. Bellingcat gathered a plethora of time-stamped evidence, including photographs and videos, to show that a Buk missile launcher was transported through the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on the day before the jet was shot down. The weapons system was operated by the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, according to the researchers, who, along with other open source investigators, found images of it in transport. According to Dutch prosecutors, separatists in an agricultural field near the city of Snizhe in Donetsk congratulated each other after firing the missile, believing they had shot down an enemy aircraft. The Hague subsequently sentenced separatist military leader Girkin, commanding officer Dubinsky and executive commander Kharchenko to life imprisonment for murder in absentia and ordered their arrests after the district court trial concluded in November 2022. The court found they had caused 'devastating destruction' with 'unforeseeably serious consequences for the relatives.' The verdicts helped counter disinformation emanating from Russia about how the plane was downed, including alleged eyewitnesses who saw Ukrainian fighter jets in the vicinity at the time the missile was fired. The attempt to pin the blame on Kyiv contradicted earlier Russian media reports about the downing of a Ukrainian military aircraft. 'It gives [the victims' families] a sense of closure, that there's been a serious effort to establish the truth, and that there are convictions based on a thorough legal process,' Higgins said of the verdicts. 'With the amount of disinformation that was pumped out about MH17, having those official investigations helps them draw a line under events, rather than it feeling like an open question that propagandists are happy to answer with their own theories.' The verdicts were followed by the European Court of Human Rights ruling on July 9 that Russia is responsible for the loss of the plane. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the ruling as 'null and void', according to the Kommersant newspaper. The judgement made in Strasbourg is largely symbolic as Russia broke with the court in 2022 and had prior not been complying with its rulings, although it was hailed as 'historic and unprecedented' by Ukraine. More than a decade on, the search for justice continues as Putin pursues his murderous full-blown attack on Ukraine and 'grey zone' tactics across Europe and the UK. In the Netherlands, families of the victims want the wreckage to serve as a reminder for future generations. A national monument already exists near Schiphol Airport. Higgins said: 'Following the convictions in the Dutch MH17 trial and the verdict at the European Court of Human Rights, there is still an ongoing case in the US where the family of a victim was recently given permission to go ahead and sue a Russian bank for enabling separatists in eastern Ukraine to continue their war, which resulted in MH17 being shot down. 'There's also an ongoing debate in the Netherlands about what to do with the wreckage. Some families are hoping for the creation of a museum to house the wreckage and tell the MH17 story for future generations.' Echoes of MH17 reverberated in the Azerbaijan Airlines crash that killed 38 people on Christmas Day. A Russian missile is thought to have brought down the plane as it tried to land at Grozny in Chechnya. Moscow said at the time that an investigation was taking place and it would be 'incorrect to make any hypotheses' before it concludes. Higgins does not see any clear lines connecting the two incidents but does believe there is a lesson for history in the puzzle he helped to solve. More Trending 'I think these incidents are different enough that there's no real pattern behind them, beyond the incompetence of the people operating the missile systems for the shootdown,' he said. 'MH17 was significant because it shows what happens when the West accepts lies told to them by authoritarian regimes in the name of diplomacy. Any authoritarian regime will continue to push at the boundaries of what's acceptable, so they know how much they can get away with before a significant reaction. 'With MH17 the failure to respond firmly to Russia's secret invasion of Ukraine set up the circumstances for the shooting down of MH17, and eventually the official invasion of Ukraine in 2022.' Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact MORE: Coalition that's recording each Russian war crime ready for Putin's day of reckoning MORE: Alexander Litvinenko predicted 'Ukraine will suffer' at the hands of 'Putin the hooligan' MORE: Dad of British man killed on downed MH17 recalls final goodbye at the airport
The Star
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
How Jordan's national airline navigates war-torn zones
For years, Jordan's national carrier has been forced to seek safer flight routes due to the conflicts happening just beyond its borders. — Pixabay Wedged between the Middle East's most embattled conflict zones, Jordan has long learned to navigate military strife. For the kingdom's national airline, that means studying missile flight paths to redirect its aircraft, sometimes with just moments to respond. Such experience has allowed Royal Jordanian Airlines to keep its fleet of about two dozen aircraft operating, even as large swaths of air space in the region shut down while Israel and Iran traded missiles in the past two weeks. Iraq, Israel and, Syria – which all border on Jordan – and even the Gulf states closed their skies at certain points in recent days, disrupting operations for major airlines and leaving passengers and aircraft dislocated as the region's aviation network froze. 'Those missile paths were quite well known,' chief executive officer Samer Al Majali said in an interview from Amman. 'Sometimes the warning is in minutes and sometimes the warning is several hours ahead. That's how it's dealt with.' While Jordan has managed to stay out of a direct confrontation, the country of about 11 million people has borne the brunt of the armed conflict raging just outside its borders, from Israel's strikes on Hamas since late 2023 to years of civil war in Syria. That's forced the carrier to seek safer aircraft passages that take longer, sometimes doubling flight times and driving up operating costs, Al Majali said. The threat of missile strikes has become a brutal reality for the aviation industry, including the downing of a Malaysia Airlines aircraft (MH17) over Ukraine in 2014 that killed almost 300 people on board. An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet was hit with what was likely a Russian surface-to-air missile approaching Grozny in late 2024, killing 38 people. Qatar closed down its air space for several hours recently after Iran fired missiles at a US base in the country. The move left tens of thousands of passengers in the region out of position, throwing operations at Qatar's main airport into chaos. Royal Jordanian's earnings took a hit after people started cancelling flights in late 2023. Leisure travel has dropped as tourists worry that they might get stuck should air space closes down, Al Majali said. At one point in the last few weeks, Sweden's aviation authorities denied the airline's planes landing rights at Stockholm's main airport because they were coming from a perceived conflict zone, the CEO said. Beyond the threat from missiles, Royal Jordanian has had to grapple with so-called GPS spoofing – deliberate interference where false satellite signals disrupt aircraft navigation systems. As a result, an aircraft receives unreliable information, affecting multiple on-board operations, Al Majali said. In the past few weeks, sirens rang throughout the country when missiles from Iran passed through the skies of Jordan to reach Israel. Shrapnel and downed drones landed in the kingdom, injuring several people. The exchange of fire between Tehran and Tel Aviv has caused widespread aviation disruption since last year. Yet the recent airspace closures were the most consequential yet for air traffic in the region, also reaching Dubai, one of the busiest hubs in the world. Emirates and Qatar Airways handle a big portion of the traffic within the Middle East and are transfer points for long-haul travel between Asia, Europe and North America. – Bloomberg
CNA
10-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Europe's top human rights court says Russia responsible for 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight
STRASBOURG, France: A top European court on Wednesday (Jul 9) ruled Russia committed a string of human rights violations in backing anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014, in the downing of the MH17 flight that year and in invading Ukraine in 2022. The European Court of Human Rights, part of the Council of Europe rights body, is tasked with implementing the European human rights convention in signatory countries. Wednesday's largely symbolic ruling comes after the Council of Europe excluded Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow dropped out of the European rights convention in September that year. The ECHR however still handles cases against Russia that were brought before that date. A panel of 17 judges found Russia violated the convention through "extrajudicial killing of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel" outside of combat, "torture", "forced labour", "unlawful and arbitrary detention of civilians" as well as looting. The judges also ruled that Russia had violated the European rights convention through "the transfer to Russia and, in many cases, the adoption there of Ukrainian children". The court said Russia "must without delay release or safely return all persons who were deprived of liberty on Ukrainian territory under occupation by the Russian and Russian-controlled forces." It added that Moscow should cooperate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism to help identify "all children transferred from Ukraine to Russia and Russian-controlled territory" before September 2022 to restore contact between them and their families, and enable their safe reunification. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Russia had no intention of complying with the decision of the court, whose rulings it considered to be "null and void". "HISTORIC" The court issued its verdict in response to four complaints. Ukraine had filed three of these over events from 2014 to 2022, and the Netherlands had filed a fourth over the downing over eastern Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The UN's aviation agency has blamed Moscow for the tragedy that killed all 298 on board. The ECHR found that "the suffering of the next of kin of the victims of the downing of flight MH17" violated the right to freedom from torture and punishment. Ukraine celebrated what it said was a "historic decision". Its justice ministry said the court's recognition of "systematic and widespread human rights violations committed by Russia" was a "victory on the international stage". Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said it was "an important step toward justice". "The court has designated Russia as responsible for the downing of MH17 and the death of its passengers, including 196 Dutch nationals," he said. Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, step-sister and nephew in the tragedy, said it was an "important day". "I don't think Russia will pay anything but it is not about money today," he said. "It is about getting justice and recognition and maybe getting apologies... You never know." Usually individuals file cases at Europe's top human rights court, appealing to it as a last resort in cases where they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues.
