Tag Archives: MH17

Lui Tuck Yew said: "It goes to show that 20/20 hindsight is most prescient in those who operate from the sidelines," Lui said, when an independent lawmaker suggested SIA had ignored "tell-tale signs" about the danger facing civilian aircraft in the region.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) is looking into ways to enhance the sharing of safety and security information among national aviation authorities and airlines, following the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said on Monday (Aug 4). But like many airlines plying between Europe and Asia, Singapore Airlines was flying in the same airspace as MH17, with SQ351 about 90km away, said Mr Lui. “As soon as SIA received news of the incident, they immediately re-routed all their flights to avoid Ukrainian airspace entirely,” he said.

A youth leader said Malaysia Airlines' disasters were the wrath of Allah for its flight attendants' uniforms (pictured) A Malaysian youth leader has been slammed after he suggested the MH17 tragedy was God's punishment for the airline serving alcohol on-board The leader of the youth off-shoot of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman, said the airline had provoked Allah's wrath 'in the bellies of the planes' because it mocked Islamic rule.

Soviet leader Josef Stalin once memorably remarked about his country that "it does not matter how people vote; it matters who does the counting". Mr Putin is continuing this tradition by assuming that facts are unimportant - the only thing that matters is who spins the narrative.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has won praise from even his political foes for using quiet diplomacy in securing the release of the black boxes and the remains of 298 people killed in the downing of MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Veteran opposition politicians Lim Kit Siang and Anwar Ibrahim were among the leaders who yesterday lauded Mr Najib for scoring a diplomatic coup in reaching a deal with pro-Russian separatists holding on to the bodies and black boxes. “The Prime Minister ... is to be commended for the breakthrough,” said Mr Lim.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday handed over two black boxes recovered from the crash site of the MH17 jet to Malaysian officials at a press conference. They also announced a ceasefire within a 10-kilometre radius around the crash site to allow international investigators to safely access the vast area where the Malaysia Airlines flight was downed Thursday.

After one of its passenger airliners was blasted from the sky over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 onboard, the ill-starred carrier Malaysia Airlines is rerouting flights away from the region -- and over war-torn Syria instead. Al Arabiya on Monday reported that Malaysia Airlines' flights from Kuala Lumpur to London were rerouted to a more southerly flight path. The new path passes over Syria and, just barely, Iraq, demonstrating how difficult it is to find paths free from conflict in volatile Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, SIA’s claim that it is not using Ukraine airspace has been challenged by reports stating that Flight SQ351 was about 25km away from the ill-fated MH17 when it went down. Posting on SIA’s Facebook page, netizens were berating SIA on this issue, accusing SIA of not being truthful:

A top pro-Russia separatist leader has claimed that the victims of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 may have already been dead before the plane took off from Amsterdam on Thursday. Rebel leader Igor Girkin is reported as having said that he was told by people at the crash site that "a significant number of the bodies weren't fresh".

Seven passengers on board a Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed over eastern Ukraine on Thursday were bound for Singapore via Kuala Lumpur. At least three were Dutch nationals, The Straits Times has learnt. It is not known if any of the other four were Singaporeans.