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Obama: At Least One American Citizen Was Killed In Malaysia Airlines Crash
President Barack Obama spoke about Thursday's Malaysia Airlines crash, calling the deaths of the 298 passengers "an outrage of unspeakable proportions" and saying "we know at least one American citizen" was killed.
Obama named Quinn Lucas Schansman as the victim from the U.S.
Obama also called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
"This was a global tragedy. An Asian airliner was destroyed in European skies, filled with citizens from many countries, so there has to be a credible international investigation into what happened," Obama said in a statement delivered from the White House Friday.
"Russia, pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine must adhere to an immediate cease-fire. Evidence must not be tampered with," Obama continued.
"It’s time for peace and security to be restored in Ukraine," Obama said.
Obama repeated sentiments shared by U.S. officials, saying it's believed a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists took down the jet.
Obama had briefly addressed the plane crash during an appearance in Delaware on Thursday, saying the United States "will offer any assistance we can to determine what happened and why."
Vice President Joe Biden also addressed the plane crash during a Thursday appearance at the 2014 Netroots Nation conference, saying the incident was "not an accident."
Below, more from the AP:
WASHINGTON — The United States began building a case Friday linking pro-Russian separatists to the shocking downing of a passenger jet in Ukraine. A somber President Barack Obama declared the deaths of those on board, including at least one American, an "outrage of unspeakable proportions."
Obama said the U.S. believes the Malaysia Airlines plane was felled by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area near the Ukraine-Russia border that is controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists. Even as he cautioned that the exact circumstances were still being determined, the president turned his sights on Russia, saying the insurgents would not be capable of carrying out such an attack without Moscow's support.
"We know that they are heavily armed and they are trained, and we know that that's not an accident," Obama said. "That is happening because of Russian support."
The president spoke shortly after Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined preliminary evidence against Russia and the separatists during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Power said separatists were spotted Thursday with an SA-11 anti-aircraft missile at a location close to the site where the plane came down and that they had boasted on social media sites about shooting down a plane, then later deleted those posts.
Power joined Obama in calling for an immediate international investigation, and she warned that the separatists and those supporting them would have "good reason to cover up evidence of their crime." The U.S. has called for evidence from the crash site to remain in Ukraine until investigators determine who is responsible.
The American killed in the incident was identified as Quinn Lucas Schansman. Officials said they were still working to confirm whether any other U.S. citizens were on board the plane.
For Obama, the downed plane adds new complexity to U.S. efforts to quell the months-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Increasingly stringent economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe, including a new round of penalties announced a day before the plane was shot down, have done little to change Russian President Vladimir Putin's approach.
Obama warned Russia anew on Friday that the U.S. has the capacity to increase the economic pain, but he outlined no specific potential actions. He did say he saw no U.S. military role in the conflict that has stemmed in part from Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
All 298 people aboard the Malaysian plane were killed in Thursday's incident. The victims included vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists. The passengers came from a dozen countries, spreading the impact of the Ukraine crisis around the globe.
"This certainly will be a wake-up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences to an escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine — that it is not going to be localized, it is not going to be contained," Obama said.
The president has spoken with several world leaders since the crash, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands. The flight originated in Amsterdam and nearly 200 of those killed were Dutch.
Obama also spoke with Russia's Putin just as initial reports of the crash were coming in. On Friday, the president stopped short of blaming Putin for the downing of the plane, but he said the Russian leader could bring the broader conflict to an end.
"He has the most control over that situation, and so far at least he has not exercised it," the president said.
A U.S. official said all available evidence, including satellite imagery, pointed to the plane being shot down with an SA-11 anti-aircraft missile fired by pro-Russian separatist forces. The official said the U.S. detected three separate events associated with the shootdown: the launching of the missile from the Ukraine side of the border, the missile's impact with the plane and the plane slamming into the ground.
That official was not authorized to discuss U.S. intelligence matters publicly by name and commented only on condition of anonymity.
Power, during her remarks at the United Nations, said Ukrainian forces as well as the separatists have SA-11 systems in their inventory. However, she said the U.S. was not aware of those systems being in the area of the shooting, and she noted that Ukrainian air defenses have not fired any missiles during the dispute with Russia.
The State Department said the FBI and National Transportation Security Board were each sending at least one agent to Ukraine, and perhaps more later, to assist with the crash investigation.
A command center has been set up at the State Department, where officials from agencies participating in the delegation gathered Friday morning for a briefing from the CIA on the political and military situation.
See below for more updates on the situation:
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's step-grandmother was one of the passengers on board, AFP reports, citing the nation's defense minister:
Hishammuddin Hussein, a cousin of Najib's, said 83-year-old Sri Siti Amirah was "on the flight". Siti Amirah was also Hishammuddin's step-grandmother.
Malaysia Airlines has released a new list of the nationalities of the passengers on board:
Netherlands: 192 (including 1 dual Netherlands/USA citizen), Malaysia: 44 (including 15 crew & 2 infants), Australia: 27, Indonesia: 12 (including 1 infant), United Kingdom: 10 (including 1 dual UK/S. Africa citizen), Germany: 4, Belgium: 4, Philippines: 3, Canada: 1, New Zealand: 1
The Associated Press reports that there are major differences between the two Malaysia Airlines disasters this year:
This Friday, and the airport was receiving crying relatives again.
This time, they knew the outcome of the disaster. The wreckage of the Boeing 777 was found, scattered over a Ukrainian field after a suspected missile shot it down. Most of the casualties were Dutch with 44 Malaysians, including 15 crew and two infants.
No one is wailing. No one is making a scene. There is no hope of anyone being found alive.
Counseling is set up immediately. The government addresses a stunned nation and the world without hours, at 4 a.m.
The New York Times writes that the incident reveals "catastrophically insufficient" precautions by aviation authorities and flight planners.
One European aviation official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the missile strike, said the airspace restrictions set by Russia and Ukraine were inadequate, but the airline dispatchers still had the option of plotting routes around the conflict area.
“The general feeling is that if the airspace is closed to 32,000 feet, the last thing I am going to do is fly at 33,000"
The International AIDS Society shared the names of 6 delegates
who were on the flight, traveling to the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) in Melbourne, Australia:
Pim de Kuijer, STOP AIDS NOW!
Joep Lange, co-director of the HIV Netherlands Australia Research Collaboration (HIV-NAT)
Lucie van Mens, Director, AIDS Action Europe
Maria Adriana de Schutter, AIDS Action Europe
Glenn Thomas, World Health Organisation
Jacqueline van Tongeren, Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development
Reuters reports that on Friday President Barack Obama spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott regarding the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. NBC News reports that with Merkel, Obama discussed the possibility of new sanctions against Russia if it does not move to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine. The White House said of the discussion, "They emphasized that Russia bears a clear responsibility to deny separatists in eastern Ukraine continued access to heavy weapons and other support from inside Russia." Earlier this week, Obama announced a new round of sanctions against Russia for failing to defuse conflict in Ukraine.
More from NBC News here.
Barry and Izzy Sim were intending to fly to from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that crashed in eastern Ukraine, but changed their flight at the last minute.
The couple told The Telegraph, "We couldn't get both on the flight this morning, so we changed it to the KLM one (scheduled to fly later the same day)." Watch the video below.
Rebels at the scene of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 prevented a team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe from fully examining the crash site, Reuters reports. OSCE's said "We had expected unfettered access, that's the way we work," adding, "Unfortunately the task was made very difficult. Upon arrival at the site ... we encountered armed personnel who acted in a very impolite and unprofessional manner. Some of them even looked slightly intoxicated."
OSCE's Michael Bosiurkiw tells @camanpour monitors greeted "w/ hostility" at MH17 crash site, victims' bodies decomposing, "lot of chaos"
— Ivan Watson (@IvanCNN) July 18, 2014
An official with Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that rebels had allowed responders from the Ukrainian government to visit the crash site, the New York Times reports. The official said that 181 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.
The ministry also said that the investigation would be based in Kharkiv.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry says the Malaysian Airlines crash investigation will be based in the city of Kharkiv http://t.co/yaK9ynb3X7
— MFA of Ukraine (@MFA_Ukraine) July 18, 2014
-- Andrew Hart
According to defense and intelligence specialists cited by The Guardian, pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine are destroying evidence connecting them missile systems suspected to have been used to shoot down the jet. This comes amid global urges for an investigation into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight get underway.
The Guardian reports:
Postings on rebel websites immediately after the crash boasted of having shot down what they claimed was an Antonov Ukrainian military transport plane, but these have been deleted.
Adding:
Other material on rebel social media sites was being deleted, including pictures showing the alleged capture of Buk missile vehicles by rebels from a Ukrainian air base last month.
A team from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe was reportedly impeded from thoroughly searching the crash site by pro-Russian rebels on Friday.
Read the Guardian report here.
-- Andrew Hart
The Dutch news agency Eindhovens Dagblad reports that six members of a family from Neerkant in the Netherlands were killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine. A father, mother and four children were aboard the plane. Photos of flowers and remembrances left at the home of the family can be found here.
Britta Sanders, a reporter with RTL Nieuws tweeted a photo of the scene.
Bij het huis van de omgekomen familie #Wals intussen een bloemenzee. En veel vlaggen in #Neerkant halfstok pic.twitter.com/mNAe6svIhq
— Britta Sanders (@BrittaRTLNieuws) July 18, 2014
Read the report from ED.nl (in Dutch) here.
Ukraine's defense ministry said on Friday its troops had captured the southeastern part of the rebel-held city of Luhansk.
"The minister of defense, Valery Heletey, told President Petro Poroshenko that Ukrainian armed forces took control of the southeastern part of Luhansk," the statement said, adding that troops had also surrounded the airport.
-- Eline Gordts
Julia Ioffe of the New Republic reports on an encounter with Igor Bezler, whose voice is allegedly in intercepted phone calls that connect separatists in eastern Ukraine to the crash of a Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. Bezler, also known as "Demon," met with Ioffe and a photographer in eastern Ukraine in May.
From her report:
He's also big into taking hostages (he's got 14) and shooting down planes, and then bragging about it. Asked by his RIA interviewer on July 16 how many planes his forces have shot down, he replied with trademark bravado: "Four." He added, "We can't find them all because they fall into Ukrainian [government-controlled] territory, but we've posted photographs of parachutes. We found six of them."
Read the New Republic's report here.
-- Andrew Hart
The Washington Post reports that it is not clear how many AIDS researchers were killed on the downed flight over Ukraine. President Obama said Friday morning that "nearly 100" had died, citing remarks made by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. But organizers for the 2014 International Aids Conference in Melbourne, where the researchers were presumed to be headed, could only confirm seven names.
Read more here.
The New Republic has mapped out the areas of the world that the FAA designates as dangerous for commercial flights:
MAP: Every Dangerous Place Where Airplanes Aren't Supposed to Fly via @jessicaschulb http://t.co/4pOqgn3vhr pic.twitter.com/6Q0hK5tHIy
— Rebecca Leber (@rebleber) July 18, 2014
MOSCOW (AP) — A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash — suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.
The pro-rebel website Russkaya Vesna on Friday quoted Igor Girkin as saying he was told by people at the crash site that "a significant number of the bodies weren't fresh," adding that he was told they were drained of blood and reeked of decomposition.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 was shot down Thursday, killing all 298 people aboard. The plane was flying 10,000 meters above an area where Ukrainian forces have been fighting separatist rebels. Each side accuses the other of downing the plane.
U.S. intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane, and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Council in New York on Friday that the missile was likely fired from a rebel-held area near the Russian border.
Girkin, also known as Strelkov and allegedly a former Russian military intelligence agent, said he couldn't confirm the information. But it's sure to add to the intense emotions surrounding the crash, with the rebels accused of shooting down the plane.
Girkin said "Ukrainian authorities are capable of any baseness."
He claimed that a large amount of blood serum and medications were found in the wreckage.
The New York Times reports that the Ukrainian government has uploaded what it says is audio of pro-Russian separatists discussing surface-to-air missile systems brought from Russia to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service, just released more audio of what it says are conversations among separatist rebels intercepted on Thursday in which they discuss an SA-11 Buk surface-to-air missile system brought into eastern Ukraine from Russia.
The audio, with English subtitles, was uploaded to the service’s official YouTube channel, along with a statement which described intercepts as “evidence that terrorists received from Russia a ‘BUK-M’ anti-aircraft missile system with a Russian crew.”
BREAKING: UKR Scty Service(SBU) has new English-language video on #MH17, incl SIGINT of DNR-GRU comms re shootdown https://t.co/QLenYiD8yK
— John Schindler (@20committee) July 18, 2014
-- Michael Maisel
U.S. officials said Ukrainian separatists have been trained in using mobile anti-aircraft batteries that are suspected of having been used in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on Thursday, according to a Washington Post report. The Post reports the separatists had been receiving training with the missile systems on Russian territory in recent weeks. On Friday, President Obama said the U.S. believes a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists took down the plane, but would not assign blame for the incident.
More from the Post:
The Ukrainian rebels are known to have been armed with shoulder-fired missiles that can attack helicopters and other aircraft operating closer to the ground. But U.S. officials have worried that the more powerful, radar-guided batteries could give the separatists a new level of firepower.
Read the full Washington Post report here.
-- Andrew Hart
The Washington Post reports that U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.) plans to petition Federal Aviation Administration to install missile defense systems on commercial airliners in light of the downing of of the Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine. The Post notes that Kirk suggested that "the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi and collapse of the Iraqi army had allowed large stockpiles of surface-to-air missiles to fall into uncertain hands."
-- Michael Maisel
Denis Pushilin, the chairman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, has reportedly resigned while in Moscow, according to several reports. The Donetsk People's Republic is in eastern Ukraine, and was declared in April by separatists.
Donetsk Republic leader Pushilin resigns after surviving several assassination attempts, being dislodged by Russians, & leaving for Moscow.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) July 18, 2014
Pushilin headed the ragtag local Donetsk separatists with ties to obscure communist parties (&, allegedly, Akhmetov). Moscow subbed him out.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) July 18, 2014
Did he jump or was he pushed? Denis Pushilin, Donetsk People's Republic chairman resigns while in Moscow, according to Interfax/Kommersant.
— Rory Challands (@rorychallandsAJ) July 18, 2014
If true, the resignation could signal turmoil between Moscow and separatists in Ukraine.
Petr Shelomovskiy, a freelance photographer covering Ukraine, tweets from the scene of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash.
Bodies from #MH17 flight are scattered over large area. I saw several on sunflower field near Shakhtarsk.
— Petr Shelomovskiy (@shelomovskiy) July 18, 2014
-- Braden Goyette
CNN reports that U.S. officials' "working theory" is Russian military gave Buk missile system to pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.
U.S. "working theory" is Russian military gave Buk missile system to pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, official says. http://t.co/uJLy7piCtf
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 18, 2014
-- Amanda Golden
Rebels have prevented a team from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from accessing the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the Guardian reports.
Harriet Salam, reporting from the scene for the Guardian says that heavily-armed rebels would not let the OSCE team inspect the crash site, leading to an hour-long standoff.
According to the Guardian, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said, “We will keep coming back tomorrow and the next day and the next day," and, “The bodies are starting to bloat and decay. An expert team is clearly needed. There is a lot to be done in a short amount of time.”
.@HarrietSalem at crash site: OSCE denied access by armed separatists; say bodies are starting to bloat and decay, expert team needed fast
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) July 18, 2014
The commander of the rebel unit said that the "OSCE came here without negotiating," as the team was turned away, the Guardian reports. Reuters reported that about 30 OSCE personnel arrived at the crash site on Friday. The OSCE had earlier said that rebels had agreed to allow teams to investigate the crash site.
More from the Guardian on the OSCE team turned away here.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power tweeted her concern over the news.
Seeing reports @OSCE monitors investigating #MH17 were harassed by separatists. Russia must use influence to ensure unimpeded investigation.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) July 18, 2014
More from Reuters:
(Reuters) - Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were not able to secure an access corridor on Friday to the site where a Malaysian airliner crashed in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE's chairman said.
"They did not have the kind of access that they expected. They did not have the freedom of movement that they need to do their job. The crash site is not sealed off," Thomas Greminger told Reuters by telephone.
Greminger, who is Switzerland's ambassador to the European rights and security watchdog, said a team of 17 monitors had stayed for about 75 minutes and was now returning to Donetsk. He said the team would try again on Saturday for more access. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
-- Andrew Hart
The Ukraine Interior Ministry posted a video to its Youtube account which it claims shows rebels driving a surface-to-air missile system toward the Russian border.
The New York Times notes that the video has not been independently verified, but says the system shown in the video resembles one mentioned by rebels to Russian state media and on Twitter. The Twitter posts have since been deleted.
Eddin Khoo, a former journalist in Malaysia, was supposed to be at the World Cup in Brazil earlier this month. His return flight, he wrote on Facebook, was scheduled for Thursday and would have taken him from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Flight MH17. Due to health problems, however, he never went on the trip at all.
"But several administrative screw ups, poor health and this incessant problem with my right eye meant I had to forgo the trip," Khoo wrote. "The itinerary and invoice for the flight is still with me. I have encountered many surreal experiences in my life, but this leaves me very numb. Thoughts, prayers, empathy to the families of all those lost on MH17. There is nothing that words can convey."
-- Nick Wing
To figure out why a Malaysian jetliner fell from the sky, investigators will use the wreckage of any missile found to determine where it came from and who fired it, experts said Friday. That may be easier said than done in the middle of a war zone.
Investigators face formidable obstacles in deciphering a disaster scene spread over 20 square kilometers (eight square miles) of contested ground in eastern Ukraine — amid a conflict in which both sides have interests that may outweigh a desire to uncover the truth.
"We are in a country that is at war, and that is in a war of communication," aviation analyst Gerard Feldzer said in Paris. "Everyone is pushing a pawn."
Read the full story here.
From The New York Times:
The United States on Friday ramped up its suspicions that pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine felled a Malaysian jetliner, asserting there was “credible evidence” that a Russian-built antiaircraft system in a rebel-held location had fired the missile that destroyed it, killing all 298 people aboard and scattering the wreckage over miles of rolling farmland.
The accusations, made by Samantha Power, the United Nations ambassador, at an emergency Security Council meeting on the Ukraine conflict, were the first public remarks by a top American official pointing fingers directly at the separatists and their Russian associates for the destruction of the Malaysia Air Lines Boeing 777-200. The aircraft was at a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet in a commonly used air route over eastern Ukraine when it was struck on Thursday.
Read more here.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: Russia could make “targeted strikes” on Ukraine http://t.co/RJ7iWUkQPp
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 18, 2014
no military role envisioned in MH17 response, says Obama
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) July 18, 2014
President Barack Obama said Friday that "at least one" U.S. citizen had been killed in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine on Thursday. Obama identified the American as Quinn Lucas Schansman.
"Men, women, children, infants, who had nothing to do with crisis in Ukraine. Their deaths are an outrage of unspeakable proportions," he said in a statement from the White House.
The president called for an "incredible" international investigation into the of the crash, a catastrophe he called a "global" tragedy. He urged Russia and Ukraine to adhere to an immediate cease fire to allow investigators to get to the bottom of the incident.
While he reserved judgement about the source of the missile until a full investigation occurs, Obama noted that Russia had provided aid to rebels who maintained control of eastern Ukraine.
"W know that these separatists have received a steady flow of support from Russia," he said. "This includes arms and training. It includes heavy weapons and it includes anti-aircraft weapons."
More of Obama's statement can be found here.
Igor Bobic
The AP text in this post has been updated to reflect the identification of one American passenger on the Malaysia Airlines flight.
