clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Will you help keep Vox free? Vox's journalism is free, so that everyone can understand our world. Reader support helps us do that. Will you give today?

Filed under:

“If it disappears, this is what it looks like,” and other powerful #MH17 photos

By Julia Jester
The social media coverage of flight MH17, which US intelligence officials say was shot down over eastern Ukraine, began Tuesday afternoon with this tweet from the official Malaysia Airlines account:


Shortly after, numerous photos — some authentic, many questionable — emerged on social media documenting the crash and its aftermath.

Chris York of Huffington Post UK shared this eery Facebook post, reportedly from an MH17 passenger who made a joking reference to the missing Malaysia Flight MH370 before taking off:


Reuters tweeted the first images of the crash site:



Throughout the day, LifeNews Russia has been tweeting screengrabs of its live coverage:



The Associated Press tweeted a video of the fiery crash:


This amateur video is not yet confirmed, but has quickly spread on social media today:


A map from Flightradar24 shows international flights rerouting their paths to avoid all Ukrainian airspace after news of the MH17 crash:


Amidst all the chaos, New York Times reporter Thomas Erdbrink has been live tweeting from the Amsterdam airport where the victims' families have been waiting for answers:


And Mashable executive editor Jim Roberts shared a photo (via Reuters) of a touching memorial to the victims of MH17 outside the Dutch embassy in Kyiv:


Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

Yes, I'll give $5/month

In This Stream

MH17 shot down over Ukraine

View all 52 stories

Next Up In The Latest

The Latest

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, briefly explained

By Avishay Artsy

The first results from the world’s biggest basic income experiment

By Dylan Matthews

George Santos’s messy expulsion vote, briefly explained

By Li Zhou

Netflix’s Squid Game reality show is kinda great. Oh no.

By Alex Abad-Santos

How Israel fractured the left and united the right

By Avishay Artsy

Take a mental break with the newest Vox crossword

By Vox Staff