Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) declared on Thursday there would be “incredible repercussions” if Russian forces or pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine shot down the Malaysian flight that crashed earlier in the day.
In an appearance on MSNBC shortly after news of the crash broke, McCain stressed it was too early to come to definite conclusions. However, he pointed out Ukrainian aircraft have previously been shot down in recent days and “mistaken identification” of the Malaysian plane could be “part of a pattern” that demands a powerful reaction from the United States.
“This was an airliner headed towards Russian airspace and it has the earmarks — and I’m not concluding — but it has the earmarks of a mistaken identification of an aircraft that they may have believed was Ukrainian. If that’s true, this is a horrible tragic event which was certainly unanticipated by anybody no matter who they are. And there will be incredible repercussions if this is the case,” he said. “If it is the result of either separatist or Russian actions mistakenly believing that this is a Ukrainian warplane, I think there’s going to be hell to pay and there should be.”
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