– Global markets tumble –
News of the crash sent European, US and Asian stock markets tumbling. Shares in Malaysia Airlines plummeted almost 18 percent.
Markets were jittery as the crash could worsen geopolitical tensions fuelled by broadened US and EU sanctions aimed at pressuring Russia to force the rebels in Ukraine’s east to end their three-month insurgency that has claimed more than 600 lives.
The disaster comes just months after Malaysia’s Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 on board. That plane diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path and its fate remains a mystery despite a massive multinational aerial and underwater search. READ: Malaysia Airlines ‘loses contact’ with flight over Ukraine.
“This is a tragic day, in what has already been a tragic year, for Malaysia,” Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak told a press conference early Friday after announcing an “immediate investigation”.
Najib added that a team of disaster response specialists had been dispatched to Kiev and that authorities in Ukraine had agreed to try to establish “a humanitarian corridor to the crash site”.
About The Author
