Prime Minister David Cameron has described the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 as “an absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident” and vowed that “those responsible must be held to account”.
In a statement, the prime minister said:
“My thoughts are with those who lost loved ones on flight MH17, including the families of the British citizens on board.
“I’ve been on the telephone today to the Australian Prime Minister and the Dutch Prime Minister – they’ve suffered appalling loss of life as well. I’ve also been in contact with the Malaysians and will be making other calls so we can share the information we have between us.
“It is an absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident that has taken place and we have got to get to the bottom of what happened and how it happened. We have some information but we need to find more.
“If, as seems possible, the plane was brought down then those responsible must be held to account and we must lose no time in doing that. It is an absolutely shocking incident; it cannot be allowed to stand.
“What is absolutely necessary is for all governments to cooperate in every way they can to get to the bottom of what happened, to make sure that this site can be properly investigated, and to make sure that the bodies of loved ones can be properly recovered.”
Cameron’s comments followed those of Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who yesterday said:
“I’m deeply shocked by this appalling incident and I send my heart-felt condolences to all those who may have lost family and friends. We’re determined to get to the bottom of understanding what has happened here.
“As yet, we do not have any definitive information about how this incident occurred and I don’t want to speculate at this stage. We believe that there must be a UN-led international investigation of the facts. We are prepared to make Air Accident Investigation Branch assets and specialists available to aid such an investigation. We do believe that there were British nationals on board the flight. We are working through passenger data, cross-checking it and referencing it to establish exactly the numbers and identities of those British nationals, and as soon as we have further information we will be in contact with the families.
“We don’t have detailed information on numbers of British nationals yet. I don’t want to speculate until we have completed our checks on all the passenger information. This must be resolved by an international investigation to establish the facts of what has happened. We believe the United Nations, particularly the United Nations civil aviation organisation, is the right body to lead that investigation and we will provide it all the support we can, including technical support through the Air Accident Investigation Branch.”
British nationals who are concerned a friend or relative may be involved in the flight MH17 crash should contact the Foreign Office on 02070081500.
