MYSTERY IN THE SKY - WTF? - MH370 & MH17 & QZ8501 & More

[HairOfTheDog]

But, what happens next? What can really be done?

There's a lot of circumstantial evidence piling up against Ukrainian separatists, who could not have had the training to launch the missile without Russia, by all accounts.

Putin's floating a story that there was a Ukrainian jet in that airspace and it could have shot down MH17. Ukrainian officials deny that there were any planes in the area at the time. And, Putin's story doesn't explain the social media claims by the separatists that they had obtained a missile launcher (they said from raiding an old Ukrainian military site; US intelligence says from Russia smuggling in equipment), nor does it explain separatist leaders taking credit for downing a plane right after MH17 was hit (all of which was deleted as soon as it became known that the plane was a passenger jet).

The black boxes were handed over to Malaysian officials yesterday by Donetsk separatists who again claimed not to have the equipment to shoot down a plane at that altitude. I don't think the flight recordings are gonna be much use here anyway. The plane went down too quickly. The Ukrainian govt claimed yesterday that they had received information indicating that the boxes had been tampered with while in separatist possession. I don't know about that. But, even if separatists or Russia did attempt to tamper with them, the pilots' communications with air traffic control and such were recorded on the other end too, so it would be easy to detect tampering and would cement their guilt more quickly.

Anyway, what can really be done? More financial sanctions against Russia unless they abandon the separatists altogether and work to resume peace along the Ukraine / Russia border. This means that Germany and France need to climb aboard the sanction train, despite their commerce with Russia and some financial losses to themselves. That would greatly hurt Russia and Putin. Is the loss of so many innocent lives worth it to them? We'll find out when the evidence is compiled and it goes to vote.