The UN Security Council Friday called for a full, thorough and independent international investigation into Thursday’s Malaysia Airlines plane crash. The Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed as it flew over eastern Ukraine with 298 people on board reported dead. It was reportedly shot down. “The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims, and to the people and Governments of all those killed in the crash in Eastern Ukraine on 17 July of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur,” a statement sent to The New Times read in part. “The members of the Security Council called for a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with the international civil aviation guidelines and for appropriate accountability.” The Council also stressed the need for all parties to grant immediate access by investigators to the crash site to determine the cause of the incident, it added. Rwanda holds the chair of the UN Security Council for the month of July. Moscow blames Kiev Meanwhile the Russian State Duma, or the lower house of Parliament said Friday Ukrainian authorities should be blamed for allowing a commercial jet to fly over a war-stricken territory. “It is stunning in the first hand that the Ukrainian aviation authority let a commercial plane to enter the airspace where fighting is raging,” speaker of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters. He said the fact that the jet was guided to the airspace over the territory where heavy weapons have been used could be qualified as criminal negligence or even conspiracy. Alexander Neradko, head of Russia’s Federal Air Navigation Authority (Rosaviatsia), said the plane had been guided by the Ukrainian air traffic control before the tragedy happened. “It was the responsibility of an air traffic control of the Ukrainian
