Legal Liability Regarding Downing of Malaysia Airliner Turning to Finding Responsible Parties

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has joined the discussion regarding who would be possible defendants in any wrongful death lawsuits that may be filed as a result of the deaths of nearly 300 people in the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Kirk called for lawsuits to be filed against Russian assets that are based in the United States. “‘I want to hear [during President Barack Obama’s speech Friday, July 18, 2014] that the Department of Justice will bring one hell of a wrongful death suit against Russian assets that are located in the United States to make sure there’s a significant cost paid by Russia for this action of shooting down an international airliner with a weapon system that is directly related to the Russian armed forces,'” Kirk told CNN. He mentioned assets suck as Lukoil, reportedly Russian’s second largest oil company, that has sites in the U.S. “‘They should always realize tens of millions of dollars will be lost of their international assets because of actions like this and get control of their armed forces to make sure there’s effective command and control,'” Kirk went on to say. Kirk said that the missile that brought down the MH17 flight was a Buk SA-11. “‘The Buk missile system is such a complicated radar guided system. I would think a bunch of Ukranian hillbillies would not have an ability to operate it efficiently,” Kirk said in a Washington Post story released today (July 21, 2014). “You would have to have the back up of the active duty Russian military to properly deploy and use the Buk.” As described earlier in a blog item filed by Clifford Law Offices, there is precedent for such action in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Robert A. Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, has spoken to a number of media outlets about this very issue and said that no stone must be left unturned as to holding all potential responsible parties liable. There also has been much discussion about Malaysia Airlines allowing a plane to fly over war-torn eastern Ukraine after several non-commercial planes had been targeted in recent weeks. Even more gruesome photos and videos are being released from where the downed airliner came down in eastern Ukraine. Kirk, today (July 21, 2014), said he will petition the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to install missile defense systems on commercial airliners. Kirk is a former Navy intelligence officer.