Details are starting to come together. The WSJ reports [4] that US Intelligence detected a surface missile launch and tracked the explosion of the plane.
- *U.S. INTELLIGENCE SAYS SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE FIRED PLANE: WSJ
However, Intelligence Community Divided Over Whether Missile From Russia or E. Ukraine.
As WSJ earlier noted,
If the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that crashed in eastern Ukraine was shot down — as US Intelligence has now confirmed — attackers would have had to use a sophisticated surface-to-air missile system, not the shoulder-fired weapons that are more accessible and easier to use.
Those weapons, nicknamed manpads, have been used in attacks against commercial aircraft in the past. But their range is much lower than the approximately 30,000-feet cruising altitude at which the Ukrainian official said Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing carrying 295 passengers and crew, was flying.
Manpads in use...
