mikelincs

I see now that the rebels have removed all the bodies to an unknown location at gunpoint, and now we have one of the Russian rebel liaison people saying that many of the bodies had been dead for a fw days BEFORE the crash.. WTF

Jerseygirl

You saw it? Are you one of the people they have actually allowed into the crash site?

BEVS

This article mirrors the newsfeed we are hearing and reading down here in NZ.

mikelincs

I SAW the info on the BBC news.

BBC News - MH17 air crash: Recovered bodies put on train

Jerseygirl

Whoooosh. That was the reason I posted a smilie.

md95065

WTF indeed.

Somehow I very much doubt that any of the people on the ground at the crash site are qualified to judge the condition of a body that has fallen from a height of over 30,000 feet ...

civilservant

Some of the photos that have been posted online are pretty graphic - I cannot imagine what the relatives of one man that I saw a picture of must be feeling.

The pictures I have seen purporting to be from the crash site show many bodies in excellent condition with light physical injuries. As always in a crash like this its the G forces that kill, rather than physical trauma.

jmood

The G force becomes the physical trauma. I think you meant impact.

scrubbedexpat099

Not much oxygen at 30,000 or so feet.

But the impact between a 1 ton missile travelling at about 2500 mph with a 777 travelling at 500 or so mph would be quite spectacular.

More likely there was a proximity fuse that set off 150kg of military explosive to add to the equation

Massive structural failure, as seen by the area the debris came down in.

Having said that the 777 is a big plane and most likely the front took most of the blast and there may not have been that much explosive damage to the rear. The luggage that was shown for example did not look that badly damaged.

civilservant

I think enough for something like 30 seconds of useful consciousness, assuming that the oxygen mask system was destroyed by the blast

Jerseygirl

I didn't think an individual missile actually hit the plane. I thought the missile launched from the ground...shot out numerous small missiles destroying various parts of the plane and bringing it down.

md95065

I am not an expert in this but, at first sight, the statement that "its the G forces that kill" seems unlikely. Are you referring to the G forces relating the the explosive decompression of an aircraft or something else?

It seems pretty obvious that someone ejected from an aircraft at 30,000 feet is going lose consciousness pretty quickly due to lack of oxygen and is also going to suffer from the effects of low temperature but I had assumed that they would most likely still be alive at that point.

scrubbedexpat099

These are not that hi tech, they have a long history going back to shooting down B52's in Vietnam.

Like everything the more recent iterations are more capable than earlier ones, but to hit a 777 that does not really matter.

To maximise the chances of hitting their much harder to hit normal targets once their radar detected they were within a close distance it would set off the explosive warhead which would by blast and fragmentation destroy the target.

Think of it being hit by a gigantic shotgun.

scrubbedexpat099

I have not checked but I think it is fair to say there is nobody around who has survived such an incident.

Assuming the missile hit from the frontal aspect, would seem most logical, then you would have thought those in the back may well have survived, blast/impact.

kimilseung

Vesna Vulovic ?