MH17

The plane crash of MH17 on the 17/07/14 was a tragedy.  The thing that is interesting (If this is right words for this sort of situation), is that there was an allegation that a missile was fired at it.  Diplomatically, this is massive deal; this is the biggest thing that you can do.  Attacking a civilian plant with a missile is a terrible deal and could lead to even bigger diplomatic pressure with an already tense situation on the Russian and Ukraine governments. Can the FoI help us with this situation?  Let's have a look.

Before I go any further, have a little look at the BBC Conspiracy FIles.  If you can watch it, it is an amazing documentary to watch. Well researched and well put forth.

I should point out here, that I do not follow conspiracy theories, but I do think that they add a different way of thinking about a situation and looking to see if the official version holds water.  Remember government have done really weird things.  Governments covered up the deliberate infection of black people with syphilis, the systematic sterilization of mental health patients, and the use of thalidomide.  Shouldn't it be possible that a government would cover

up a firing on a civilian plane?

So what can we find out about this case?  WHat can we find from the FoI act?  The first thing is that this did not happen on British Soil.  Well, maybe the  National Police Air Service (NPAS) or the Civil Aviation Authority (CAS) helped to investigate the crash?  The CAS didn't, that being said the NPAS has yet to get back to me at time of writing.  What about the Air Safety Support International Limited?  The didn't either.  Hows about the Accidents Investigation Branch?  They have yet to get back in touch with me either (At time of writing).  This will be interesting as we can see that there was no British Involvement in investigating the case.   

There always other avenues, however. What about the advice given to planes going through conflict zones?  The Department of Transport (DoT) gave a lot of useful advice  and referred me to the Civil Aviation Authority’s website for International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Conflict Zone Information Repository.  Have a little look on this website. It is fascinating, especially when you get to the section on the ukraine.  Now on the previous request the DoT also said that:

The Department for Transport issues security advice to UK air operators, both direct and

through the Civil Aviation Authority, in order either to prohibit them from operating in certain

airspace or to make them aware of security issues so that they can undertake their own

risk assessments in planning and routing their flights.

Could MH17 have had the knowledge that they were flying into a conflict zone?  They would have known.  If you look at the website on conflict zones, it is run by the UN  There is no way that would not have been circulated. The DoT also said

It should be noted that there is one instance where the UK has issued a Direction against

using the airspace of the Syrian Arab Republic but this information is not currently listed on

the ICAO repository. It has, however, been distributed to UK air operators who will be aware

of the direction against overflying.

So what about other avenues?  WHat about diplomatic relations?  I asked the Cabinet Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Prime Minister’s office the same question; that was “Please can you tell me how many files you have relating to the MH17 plane crash”. My theory was that this would help to see if they have done any work on this plane crash.  This was way too vague.  If you look at the conversation between me and the Foreign office, you can see that they were trying to help me on this matter.

I think that I am going to have a little dig about on this again.  I think that there maybe something more to this.  I think that there may be something else on this.  Maybe another few FoI’s?