UN’s Ban seeks investigation on Malaysian airliner crash
US officials say the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile, although the origin of fire was not precisely located. Russian UN's envoy says Russia did not shoot down the plane.
There is a clear need for a full and transparent international investigation into the crash of the Malaysian passenger plane crash, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Ban along with the government in Kuala Lumpur offered deep condolences to the families of the 295 Malaysian airplane passengers who are now presumed dead.
Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana of Rwanda - the president of the UN Security Council for the month of July - told reporters that this is indeed “the tragic situation for Malaysia for the second time,” making reference to the other Malaysian airliner, also a Boeing 777 flight MH370 which went missing en route to Beijing on March 8 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.
- Security Council on alert
According to various press reports, both Ukraine's government and the pro-Russia separatists in Eastern Ukraine have not accepted any responsibility for the incident.
American TV networks ABC and CNBC reported that the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 passenger plane “was hit by a surface-to-air missile.”
The U.S. media reported also that officials are still divided over who allegedly fired the missile and from which location it was reportedly launched.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, was quoted as saying the crash of the Malaysian airliner was "not an accident." He reportedly said the commercial plane was "blown out of the sky."
In New York, Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, denied that Russia had targeted and hit the plane.
The Malaysian airplane flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 295 people on board, when it crashed over eastern Ukraine earlier on Thursday.
