20150717 - mh17 anniversary

MH17 anniversary

One year has passed since MH17 was shot down, killing all 298 people on board

Paul McGeough

Chief foreign correspondent

July 17, 2015 - 12:15AM

On board MH17, 283 passengers were finishing their meal, reading a book, watching a movie or dozing, and its 15 crew drawing breath, while flying over territory that most probably were unaware was being torn apart by civil war.

It was utterly macabre. Even the best-managed disaster scene becomes an assault on the senses, but drop it into a hard-fought separatist war zone and it becomes heartless, even grotesque.

And so it was with Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Here was a Boeing 777 aircraft, a few hours after departing Amsterdam on July 17, 2014, bound for Kuala Lumpur – its 283 passengers, 38 of them from Australia, finishing their meal, reading a book, watching a movie or dozing, and its 15 crew drawing breath, while flying over territory that most were probably unaware was being torn apart by civil war.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh17-anniversary-one-year-has-passed-since-mh17-was-shot-down-killing-all-298-people-on-board-20150716-gidnz4.html