Dispatches

Murder in the Sky - Flight MH17 (2014x20)

Ausstrahlung: Jul 21, 2014

On Thursday 16 July 2014 a flight full of tourists, travellers and families took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport en route to Malaysia. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew on board, including three babies. Four hours after take-off and at a height of 33,000 feet, the Boeing 777 was flying above war-torn eastern Ukraine when it lost all contact with flight control. There was no distress call. It appears it was struck mid-air by a missile. Everyone on board was killed. The impact was felt across the globe, from the families awaiting their loved ones to the political capitals of the world. Immediately a blame game began. Who shot down the plane and why? Why did the pilot decide to fly across a well-known war zone? Were pro-Russian separatists responsible and should President Putin bear some of the responsibility? Could this catastrophe even spark a new Cold War? Only months after the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370 what will the impact of yet another plane crash be on the airline industry? Matt Frei visits the crash scene to tell the full story of the murder of those on board Flight MH17.