[Peetwo]

MH17 JIT update - The Russkies did it.


Via the SMH:

Australia accuses Russia of direct role in shooting down MH17

By Deborah Snow 25 May 2018 — 6:07pm

The federal government has charged Russia with having direct involvement in the downing of Malaysian flight MH17,  in a significant hardening of Canberra's position after the latest findings from the Joint Investigation Team which is probing the tragedy.

In a statement issued late on Friday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Attorney-General Christian Porter pointed to the "significant" finding of the Dutch-led JIT that a BUK missile system belonging to the 53rd Brigade of the Russian Army brought the plane down on July 17, 2014.

Following the findings of an international investigation, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announces Australia formally holds Russia responsible for its role in the downing.

"Based on these findings, the only conclusion we can reasonably now draw is that Russia was directly involved," they said.

"This evening Australia and the Netherlands notified the Russian Federation that we hold it responsible for its role in the downing. We have requested negotiations to open dialogue around the circumstances leading to the tragic loss of innocent lives."

The trio said Russia must be held to account for its conduct. They said holding the Russian Federation responsible under international law was a separate, but complementary process to the efforts by Dutch prosecutors to bring individual perpetrators to justice under the Dutch national legal system.

The decision to hold Russia directly responsible was conveyed to the Putin government in Moscow, and to the Russian Ambassadors in Canberra and the Hague, government sources said.

Earlier in the day Ms Bishop told Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones that Australia, along with other JIT members Belgium, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Ukraine were considering a "range of political and legal steps" that could be taken after Thursday's findings by the JIT.



Australian Federal Police officers and their Dutch counterparts search for human remains and personal belongings from the MH17 crash site.

Photo: Kate Geraghty

The fact that the missile had been shown conclusively to have belonged to the Russian army "raises the obvious question" she told Jones.

"How is it that such a sophisticated weapon belonging to the Russian army was dispatched to Ukraine, used to shoot down a civilian aircraft and then returned to Russia?"

She said the fact that the missile was launched from a field controlled by pro-Russian fighters "gives the lie to Russia’s claims at the time that they were not involved in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine".

Despite the decision to directly point the finger at Moscow,  federal government sources ruled out any plans to boycott the FIFA World Cup, due to take place in Russia from mid-June through to July.

The government has allocated $50 million over four years to support efforts by Dutch authorities to launch a prosecution and ensure the participation of bereaved Australian family members.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and shadow foreign affairs minister Penny Wong on Friday praised the "professionalism and rigour" of the JIT investigation, "despite Russian intransigence".

"The finding confirms the pivotal role of Russian elements in the murder of 298 innocent people, including 28 Australians," the pair said.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, also described the JIT’s findings as "significant".

Speculation about a possible boycott of the World Cup briefly flared in the United Kingdom earlier this year after Russia became the chief suspect in the nerve-agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripol and his daughter in the British town of Salisbury.

More recently, Human Rights Watch called on world leaders to boycott the opening ceremony in protest against joint Russian-Syrian operations that have caused thousands of civilian casualties.

But a spokesman for the Football Federation of Australia said the Socceroos will be taking part in the World Cup "as planned".

Russia has described the findings of the JIT as a "regrettable version of events''.
"This is a case of unfounded accusations aimed at discrediting our country in the eyes of the international community," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

&.. AP report on Cuban B737 charter flight disaster, via the ABC:

Cuba plane crash: Black box recovered as history of safety complaints against Mexican company emerges
Updated 20 May 2018, 11:31am
VIDEO: Cubans mourn after deadliest plane crash in nearly 30 years (ABC News)
RELATED STORY: More than 100 die in Cuba's third major aviation accident since 2010

The Mexican charter company whose plane crashed in Havana, killing 110 people, has been the subject of two serious complaints about its crews' performances over the past decade, according to authorities in Guyana and a retired pilot for Cuba's national airline.

Key points:

• The plane was barred from Guyanese airspace last year after authorities found its crew had allowed dangerous overloading of luggage
  
• The "black box" voice recorder has been recovered
  
• A former Cubana pilot says "there are many flight attendants and security personnel who refused to fly with this airline"
  

The plane was barred from Guyanese airspace last year after authorities discovered that its crew had been allowing dangerous overloading of luggage on flights to Cuba, Guyanese Civil Aviation director Captain Egbert Field told The Associated Press.

The plane and crew were being rented from Mexico City-based Damojh airlines by EasySky, a Honduras-based low-cost airline.

Cuba's national carrier, Cubana de Aviacion, was also renting the Boeing 737 and crew in a similar arrangement known as a "wet lease" before the aircraft veered on take-off to the eastern Cuban city of Holguin and crashed into a field just after noon Friday, according to Mexican aviation authorities.

A Damojh employee in Mexico City declined to comment, saying the company would be communicating only through written statements.

Mexican authorities said Damojh had permits needed to lease its aircraft and had passed a November 2017 verification of its maintenance program.

VIDEO: More than 100 feared dead after plane crash in Cuba (ABC News)

Cuban Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez told reporters Saturday afternoon (local time) that Cubana had been renting the plane for less than a month under an arrangement in which the Mexican company was entirely responsible for maintenance of the aircraft.

Armando Daniel Lopez, president of Cuba's Institute of Civil Aviation, told the AP that Cuban authorities had not received any complaints about the plane in that month. He declined to comment further.

Mr Yzquierdo said it was routine for Cuba to rent planes under a variety of arrangements because of what he described as the country's inability to purchase its own aircraft due to the US trade embargo on the island.

PHOTO: Cuban Transport Minister Adel Yzquierdo leaves after speaking to reporters on the island nation's worst aviation disaster in three decades. (AP: Desmond Boylan)

Cuba has been able to buy planes produced in other countries, including France and Ukraine, but has pulled many from service due to maintenance problems and other issues.

"It's normal for us to rent planes," he said.

"Why? Because it's convenient and because of the problem of the blockade that we have. Sometimes we can't buy the planes that we need, and we need to rent them."

PHOTO: Forensic investigators sift through the remains of the plane. (AP: Desmond Boylan)

He said that with Damojh, "the formula here is that they take care of the maintenance of the aircraft. That's their responsibility."

He said Cuba did not have pilots certified to fly the Boeing, so it had hired the Mexican crew with the expectation that they were fully trained and certified by the proper authorities.

Black box recorder recovered from crash site

Mr Yzquierdo also said the jet's "black box" voice recorder had been recovered and that Cuban officials had granted a US request for investigators from Boeing to travel to the island.

Eyewitness and private salon owner Rocio Martinez said she heard a strange noise and looked up to see the plane with a turbine on fire.

"It had an engine on fire, in flames, it was falling toward the ground," Ms Martinez said, adding that the plane veered into the field where it crashed, avoiding potential fatalities in a nearby residential area.

PHOTO: The first secretary of Communist Party in Holguin comforts relatives of the crash victims. (Reuters: ACN)

Captain Field told AP that the Boeing 737 with tail number XA-UHZ had been flying four routes a week between Georgetown, Guyana, and Havana starting in October 2016.

Cubans do not need visas to travel to Guyana, and the route was popular with Cubans working as "mules" to bring suitcases crammed with goods back home to the island, where virtually all consumer products are scarce and more expensive than in most other countries.

After Easy Sky cancelled a series of flights in spring 2017, leaving hundreds of Cubans stranded at Guyana's main airport, authorities began inspecting the plane and discovered that crews were loading excessive amounts of baggage, leading to concerns the aircraft could be dangerously overburdened and unbalanced.

In one instance, Guyanese authorities discovered suitcases stored in the plane's toilet.

"This is the same plane and tail number," Guyanese Infrastructure Minister David Patterson said.

He and other Guyanese authorities said they did not immediately know if the crew suspended last May was the same one that died in Friday's crash.

Damojh operates three Boeing 737s, two 737-300s and the 737-201 that crashed Friday, according to Mexican officials.

PHOTO: A local newspaper says three people survived. (Reuters: Alexandre Meneghini)

Ovidio Martinez Lopez, a pilot for Cubana for over 40 years until he retired six years ago, wrote in a post on Facebook that a plane rented from the Mexican company by Cubana briefly dropped off radar while over the city of Santa Clara in 2010 or 2011, triggering an immediate response by Cuban aviation security officials.

As a result, Cuban officials suspended a captain and co-pilot for "serious technical knowledge issues," and Cuba's Aviation Security authority issued a formal recommendation that Cubana stop renting planes and crews from Damojh, Mr Martinez wrote.

"There are many flight attendants and security personnel who refused to fly with this airline," Mr Martinez wrote.

"On this occasion, the recommendation was overlooked and they rented from them again."

Contacted by AP in Havana, Mr Martinez confirmed his Facebook account but declined to comment further.

Mexican officials said the Boeing 737-201 was built in 1979.

In November 2010 a Global Air flight originating in Mexico City made an emergency landing in Puerto Vallarta because its front landing gear did not deploy.

A fire was quickly extinguished, and none of the 104 people aboard were injured. That plane was a 737 first put into service in 1975.

Mexican aviation authorities said a team of experts would fly to Cuba tomorrow to take part in the investigation.
PHOTO: Relatives of passengers arrive near the airport terminal in Havana. (AP: Desmond Boylan)

MTF...P2