IT HAS BEEN just over 24 hours since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine.
Already there have been big moves at a diplomatic level, with pro-Russian separatists, Ukraine and Russia blaming each other and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon calling for a “full and transparent investigation”.
Here we fill you in on what exactly has happened since yesterday:
10.15 GMT Thursday - The Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departs from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport carrying 298 people to Kuala Lumpar.
Thursday midday – Speculation begins online that a passenger plane may have crashed in Eastern Ukraine.
14.15 GMT Thursday – Ukraine aviation authorities inform Malaysian Airlines that they lost contact with the flight at about 30 miles from the Russia – Ukraine border. The flight was at 33,000 feet when it was shot down, 1000 feet above restricted airspace.
Around 16.20 GMT Thursday – News comes through that passenger flight MH17 has crashed in East Ukraine.
18.14 GMT Thursday – French junior transport minister Frederic Cuvillier makes a statement that he has advised:
French airlines to avoid Ukraine’s air space as long as the reasons behind this catastrophe are not known.
One of the world’s most important flight path cuts over Eastern Ukraine. Hundreds of flights are expected to be affected by the incident.
22.52 GMT Thursday – Malaysian Airlines vice president Huib Gorter tells a press conference the nationalities of those on board the flight.
Of the 283 passengers and 15 crew:
01.00 GMT Friday - Malaysian Airlines System shares begin trading, falling by 17.8%.
06.00 GMT Friday – A second recorder is recovered at the scene of the crash, according to a Reuters report. Pro-Russian separatists claimed to have found the Boeing 777′s black box on Thursday.
Rebels controlling the area have pledged to allow international investigators into the site.
09.15 GMT Friday – German Chancellor Angela Merkel urges an immediate ceasefire to the conflict in the Ukraine.
09.34 GMT Friday - News emerges from Russia that the Ukraine missile system was active on the day of Malaysian jet flight.
09.38 GMT Friday – Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai tells reporters that if flight MH17 was shot down, it is “an outrage against human decency”.
10.20 GMT Friday – Dutch flags are being flown at half mast today as the investigation into what happened continues.
Friday morning – Reports emerge that 100 Aids experts were on the flight, heading to a conference in Sydney, Australia.
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/490053995642511361
A team of monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe are dispatched to the crash site, and rebel militants reportedly agree to allow them access.
15.00 GMT Friday - The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting on the disaster and calls for a “full, thorough and independent international investigation” into the crash.
15.50 GMT Friday - Amnesty International calls for all sides in the Ukraine conflict “to cooperate in establishing the causes of the tragic incident”.
17.15 GMT Friday - An Irish-born woman has been confirmed among the passengers of Flight MH17.
17.30 GMT Friday - US President Barack Obama says there was evidence that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from rebel-held territory in Ukraine.
18.20 GMT Friday - The AFP reports that America’s National Transportation Safety Board and FBI are preparing to send investigators to Ukraine.
20.20 GMT Friday - Interpol says it will send a team to Ukraine within the next 48 hours to help identify the victims of MH17.
20.45 GMT Friday - Buzzfeed’s Max Seddon has been tweeting details from the OSCE’s press conference on the crash, saying that the monitoring team had trouble accessing the site and questioning the whereabouts of the black boxes earlier reported recovered:
- Additional reporting by Susan Ryan
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