IN view of the recent sad event of the shooting down of flight Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 could the same thing have happened to Flight MH370 but over desolate country?

It seems very strange that nothing has been heard or seen of that flight since it disappeared.

Can Malaysia Airlines continue in business or will the claims from relatives after two disasters put the company out of business?

I know I would not fly on one of their aircraft.

JM Gowland, Heighington.

THE shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was not an act of war or terrorism. It is, in fact, mass murder.

Killing 295 people, including some 100 children, who were going about their lives has shocked all rightminded people the world over.

If, as expected, the Russians supplied the surface-to-air missile that hit Flight MH17 the Russian President Vladimir Putin must become the subject of an international arrest warrant.

It was President Putin who allowed such weapons of mass destruction into the hands of rebels on the Ukrainian border and he has supported them with a range of other arms.

The west can no longer stand back and start engaging in more talks with a power-mad warmonger like President Putin.

Many sanctions have been placed upon the Russian state over the Ukrainian issue.

Now is the time to ban all Russians from international travel, stop all western flights to and from Russian airports and seize all its assets from round the world.

President Putin must be stopped at any cost before he looks upon the west as an easy target to do as he wishes.

Remember Hitler?

President Putin has come from the same mould – that of a power-hungry madman.

John Merry, Darlington.

SO the rebels are getting the blame for shooting down a Boeing 777?

Aviation experts have asked why the doomed flight was flying over one of the world’s most dangerous areas. Is it because the route was the most economical alternative?

If this is true, and the plane had taken an alternative route, those poor souls on board would probably be getting on with their day-today lives.

Instead, they were placed in a unnecessarily dangerous situation which, I’m sure, if the passengers had known about many would not have taken the flight.

Or is there something even more sinister going on?

Is it just coincidence that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared last March with no trace?

Was that plane also shot down or, as suggested, did the pilot have something to do with the disaster, maybe purposefully flying lower than he should putting his plane and nearly 300 souls in grave danger?

I know this sounds crazy, but let’s not forget kamikaze pilots of the Second World War and today’s suicide bombers.

Certain people can be brainwashed into doing anything.

There are flights that have permission to fly around this area of airspace but to allow a plane to purposely fly directly over such a volatile country in the the hands of rebel forces beggars belief.

I’m sure President Putin will be as appalled and repulsed as we all are at this tragedy. He must stand up and put a stop to this Ukrainian feud before the already strained relations between the superpowers get out of hand – that way we all lose big time.

RIP flight MH17.

John Cumberland, Rushyford.