0 UPDATED: Malaysian Airlines plane shot down over Ukraine

UPDATES: Murray McCully has advised that at least one New Zealand passport holder was aboard flight MH17. There are other passengers with New Zealand connections. And reports suggest 27 Australians were amongst the passengers.

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Stuff's front-page banner says it all:

Stuff's lead story reports:

A Malaysia Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in near Donetsk, killing 295 people, with Ukraine officials claiming it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched by pro-Russian separatists.
The disaster comes only four months after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on March 8 with 239 people aboard, including New Zealanders Paul Weeks, 38, and Ximin Wang, 50.
A New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said it was working with officials in Malaysia and embassies overseas to check if any Kiwis were on the flight over the Ukraine.
Ukrainian armed forces were not involved in the plane being brought down, the Ukranian presidential press service said.
Interfax quoted it as saying that President Petro Poroshenko did not exclude that the plane had been shot down.
"This is the third event in the last few days following An-26 and SU-25 planes being brought down. We do not exclude that this plane was also shot down and we stress that the armed forces of Ukraine did not carry out any action to destroy targets in the air," the press service said.
Poroshenko described the incident an act of "terrorism".
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet).
He also said it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, which can fire missiles up to an altitude of 22,000 meters (72,000 feet).

If this civilian aircraft has indeed been shot down by pro-Russian Ukraine separatists it is an unspeakably atrocity and an act of terrorism. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in this disastrous situation. We will bring you updates as they come to hand.

UPDATE: NYCAviation.com reports:

0 Why we shouldn't tour Pakistan

There's some bad stuff going down  right now at Karachi's international airport.

KARACHI: Four terrorists have been killed while three personnel from the Airport Security Force (ASF) and one each from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have been killed following an armed attack at the Karachi airport.
According to initial reports, four armed attackers hurled grenades and opened fire as they entered the tarmac from fokker gate. This led to an exchange of fire between ASF personnel and the gunmen.
Gunshots and blasts were being heard with intervals outside the airport and flight operations have been suspended.
Two planes were partially damaged in the terrorist attack. TV footage showed one of the planes had caught fire.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif contacted DG Rangers Rizwan Akhtar and directed him to ensure safety of all the passengers at the airport.
Pakistan Army personnel have also arrived to assist ASF and other Law Enforcement Agencies.
According to DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, Pakistan Army troops have started reaching the airport and taking positions. In a series of tweets the DG ISPR added that proper coordination has being ensured for optimum effect and the DG Rangers was present at the airport leading the operation. He added that the operation was being supervised by Corps Commander.
DG ISPR, in his tweets, said all passengers in the planes have evacuated to safer places. He said he made a contact with Operational Commander at the airport who said terrorists had been contained in one area.

There's a good reason why the Pakistan cricket team plays its matches in neutral venues such as Dubai and the UAE; Pakistan is simply too volatile and dangerous.

Ask the New Zealand players who were in the Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi in 2002 when a bomb exploded outside. Ask the Sri Lankan players who were injured after gunmen fired on their team bus in Lahore in 2009.

This morning's events show that Pakistan is still far from a safe place. Whilst it is unfortunate that their players are continually denied the opportunity to ply their trade on home soil, player safety must be paramount, and the ICC must continue to leave Pakistan off the list of places to tour.

0 Tweet of the Day - 3 May 2014

Grant Robertson and Internet Party legal beagle Graeme Edgeler had an interesting korero on Twitter a few minutes ago:

With all respect to Mr Robertson, we take MPs' complaints about airports with a grain of salt. Most of the time, after all, they are flying on our dime. We passed through the same security at Auckland Domestic on Wednesday en route to the Koru Lounge for a cuppa and a snack. We think it's highly likely that most MP's have time to do likewise before they fly; we've seen plenty of them up there over the last few years.

Unfortunately, the actions of a few looney extremists who get their jollies by flying airplanes into tall buildings or blowing them out of the sky have resulted in tough security being imposed at airports. Yes; it's an inconvenience at times, but it sure beats being blown up! We will be flying through the US next year, when we expect to REALLY get a reality check about airport security.

And as an aside, we see that Whanganui MP and Associate Justice Minister Chester Borrows is off to Botswana to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting. We wish him a pleasant journey to southern Africa where he will represent New Zealand with his usual aplomb, and respectfully suggest that he avoid tweeting about any travel inconveniences lest we feel honour-bound to dob him in!