billboards or the advertising to avoid any objects that could be tossed around in the full-scale winds that could hurt people. at this time it is unclear what the damage is in hainan, and also it could hit northern vietnam and move into the southwest part of china. this is a massive storm and the rain and the storm surge that could obviously worry the residents there. >> all right, david mckenzie, live in beijing, stay with us, we'll have more special coverage, the breaking news coverage of the deadly crash of malaysian airlines flight 17, including the mother and child who missed their flight home.

hi welcome to our breaking news coverage of malaysia flight 17 that -- the united states says it believes was shot down over eastern ukraine. i just want to bring you up to date on one breaking news item. the british prime minister, david cameron, says that he is convening an international meeting this morning at his office on 10 downing street. the cobra meeting is a meeting that is convened whenever there are national securities involving the united kingdom. so that is the very latest. the crash, what brought this plane down over eastern ukraine?

the investigators are heading to the scene and there is a global demand for answers at the scene. the reuters says that local rescue crews have recovered the plane's flight recorders. witnesses say the plane exploded in the air raining charred debris on a rural area of farms. all 298 people on board are presumed dead at this stage. the united states as we were reporting believes it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. but has not determined who fired it. the ukrainian government in kiev, though, is adamant that they believe pro-russia separatists are behind this. the crash has prompted a change in flight routes for other commercial carriers. they are avoiding the air space over ukraine and understandably so. a little while ago, the australian prime minister tony abbott spoke about the crash calling it quote, not an accident but a crime. 28 australians were on that

flight. mr. abbott says he is not impressed with russia's response to the incident so far. >> i can inform you that the russian ambassador was called in by sidney by the foreign minister bishop and asked for a categoric assurance that russia would cooperate with this investigation. now, i have to tell you the initial response of the russian ambassador was to blame ukraine for this. and i have to say that is deeply, deeply, unsatisfactory. we all know there are problems in ukraine. but we also know who is very substantially to blame for those problems. and the idea that russia can somehow say that none of this has anything to do with them, because it happened in ukrainian air space, frankly does not stand up to any serious scrutiny. i want to say with the

australian people that as far as i am concerned when you have a situation where russian-backed rebels appear to have killed australians using, it may well turn out to be a russian-supplied heavy weaponry, australia takes a very dim view indeed and we want the fullest possible investigation. >> the prime minister of australia, tony abbott there, with some very strong words regarding the crash of malaysian airlines 17. one woman was supposed to be on that flight but she missed her flight, learning of the crash while on a taxi to the airport. >> i'm shaking, i don't even know what to do. i feel physically sick. i was like -- from -- coming to the airport in a taxi, was just

crying. i'm just thinking, i feel like i've been given a second chance. >> there you have it. you have those stories sometimes when planes crash. people who say, i missed my flight. i changed flights. and there you have it, sometimes by a hair's breath we manage to avoid tragedy and it was the case for this woman and her child. maxim, the ukrainian government in kiev is pointing the finger quite firmly at russian separatists in eastern ukraine today. >> yes, it is true. and you know, i mean the mood this morning in kiev, we have really strong statements addressed to the nation from the ukrainian president. and he directly ties eastern ukrainian rebels to russia. and the government, pretty sure

that ukrainian rebels shot down that plane, although there is no doubt about it for them at this point. >> and what is the feeling as to how this might change the situation in eastern ukraine, if indeed it is established that pro-russian separatists shot down this commercial airliner with weaponry supplied by russia? >> yes, it is true. unfortunately this tragedy was not a big surprise for the local public. the worsening situation on the ground in eastern ukrainian, there is intense fighting going on with the ukrainian army trying to push back against rebels and try to regain some border control. but at the same time, you know, it plays very well into the radicalization of public opinion in ukraine. because they don't want a lot of people here, politicians, general public. they don't want any kind of peace deal or peace negotiation

with the eastern ukrainian rebels anymore. and the only thing that the public pushes for is just the expansion of military operation and to take on board the international media, with possibly the logistic help anything possibly they could get from the international community. >> and maxim, one of the big questions of course right now, and as we watch heartbreaking video right now, maxim, we're watching video, i don't know if you can see it as well. but passengers just trying to make their way to kuala lumpur, and a tourism book on bali, when you see it, it just brings home the human tragedy. but what about access to this area? because this area is held by rebels, i mean, can officials and investigators actually operate there freely? >> yeah, you're definitely right. that is the question at the

moment. because this is just the hard to control area, by the rebels, they didn't allow the government officials to access the area tonight. and although the team brokered some kind of deal with the rebels to access the area, the crash site was already raided by rebels and by locals. and with the investigation, this site, you can call it a dirty investigation site. even the investigators, if they will be allowed there possibly they will find little untouched details of that crash, and it could damage the investigation process a lot. >> maxim, a freelance journalist in kiev, thank you for joining us on cnn this morning.

and yes, overnight, for our viewers in the united states. more on flight mh 17, next, the ukrainian president calls the act a terrorist attack. we'll talk to the aviation expert about that. we'll be right back. poroshe

here is the very latest on the crash of malaysian airlines flight 17. pro-russia rebels in eastern ukraine say they will allow investigators safe access to the site where the plane went down. they claim they recovered one of the plane's black boxes on thursday and a reuters report said they have now found the second one. 298 people were on board the amsterdam to kuala lumpur

flight. ukrainian officials say terrorists shot down the flight 17. glenn scoon, thank you for joining us, what kind of surface-to-air could bring down a boeing triple 7? >> all kinds, it depends on the altitude that the plane was at. when we look at terrorism and the rocketry of any kind is the shorter trajectory of the weapon. that is what we've seen with the terrorist acts involving missiles have been short-range fired missiles. and obviously now, with this incident the concern is going to be what kind of longer range missiles do. and one of the big worries for the international aviation communities is that most of the measures that have so far been designed against terrorists or anybody else's rockets have been

designed for shorter range missiles and not for longer range like this kind. >> let's talk about this potentially long range missile with a range that can go higher than 20, 25,000 feet. in this case we learned the plane was flying at 31,000 feet in a route and place deemed safe. clearly it was not. how does this change the conflict, like the one in eastern ukraine, the fact that you have rebels in possession of such surface-to-air weaponry? >> well, obviously it means in the larger realm, re-think what is the conflict zone and how do we define it in the threat to air space. in this context, it means we'll have to look at more standard scheme for re-routing when we have a so-called conflict zone. this is a fairly new conflict zone as we had in the case for instance in the fighting in

libya. when we have a conflict worldwide we have different aviation international authorities look at it, trying to determine what does this mean in terms of air threat? do we have actors who can only have access to smaller weapons or might there be larger systems that could fall in terrorists' hands or extremists hands, for that matter. i think what this means is we'll have a reconsideration of that. and we'll probably have to expand the altitude and the zone, if you will, the breadth of the zone, the width of the zone, and which aviation airline will be flying around those zones. >> and they will understandably ask this question, they're going to say just the day before a military transport plane was brought down in that very area. sure, it was flying a little bit lower, but who, at the international civil aviation organization decided this route was safe and this altitude was

safe when just 24 hours before a big military transport plane was brought down? i mean, will someone eventually be held accountable for that? >> well, i don't know if it will come down to one particular institution or one unit of that institution. there are several different bodies and organizations involved in this. but you're absolutely right that it is going to be a vital question, particularly not only because of the incident with the aircraft on wednesday, the precursor incident, if you will, possibly, but also because a number of airlines in recent days have vectored their airlines to different routes. we know that about qantas, and two other airlines. we know the question will be central to any legal matters that will flow from the situation. >> and i have to ask you one last question, because in your experience if a crash site is not accessed quickly, i mean, in this case we have -- we know

rebels say they recovered one of the black boxes. we have journalists, we have just ordinary residents in eastern ukraine in and around this crash site area, which is very wide. so how thorough and definitive can an investigation be if the evidence hastampered with and people have gone through sensitive areas? >> i have to say it is going to be very difficult here. i mean, there is the hope that neutral investigators, if you wi will, will be able to access the site and find different parts of the aircraft. but you're absolutely right, we're looking at the situation in terms of what is tainted, who has access of the site, who is in charge of the site. the non-tracking evidence at the site, in other words there is not yet a central logging system

in use as professional authorities in the u.k. and other areas and the united states use in an investigation. so the opportunity here for tampering, for evidence lost, for misdirection is great. >> glenn schoen is an aviation security expert as has studied these situations, as well. and joins us from amsterdam, where flight 17 came from. as we mentioned, there were passengers from the netherlands on that flight. and twa flight 800 went down on july 17th, 1996, just minutes after taking off from jfk airport in new york. there were 230 people on board. no one survived. terrorism was initially suspected. and some still believe the plane was shot down. but the official report by u.s. investigators concluded that a spark in a fuel tank caused an

explosion. after the break, super typhoon rammasun is bearing down on parts of china. we're going to update you on what could be one of the biggest storms to ever hit that country. .

welcome to our viewers around the world and in the

united states this hour. i'm hala gorani, super typhoon made landfall a short time ago on the island of hainan. the storm gained strength after passing through the philippines this week, typhoon rammasun is expected to hit china in the western guangdong province. they have issued the red typhoon warning. shipping in the region has been suspended as has some flights. so if you're headed to that part of the world, strong warnings, that it could be one of the strongest storms to hit that area. what is the situation now?

what part of the storm has made landfall? >> well, you're absolutely right, nothing is going to be happening in this part of the world. this is the landfall right here on the northeastern tip of hainan island. the good thing is, this is not as populated as a little further to the northwest. where we have haikou. nevertheless this is still heading to the northwest and will still impact upwards of 10 million people with typhoon-force winds. this advisory is now getting old. 230 kilometer winds, we should get more on the advisory and we'll bring you that. here is the typhoon continuing northwest. there are the dangerous winds, the landfall there right over hainan. and now it will go as hala mentioned, to guangdong province, and heading up to the northwest. the storm surge will be significant especially for the bays up to the north and then of course the rainfall that will come with the system. a perfect eye there.

just great symmetry which you don't want to see here on the radar. that is indicative of a very powerful storm, there will be flooding and a potential for landslides, but right now, with hainan and guangdong, they could have catastrophic winds coming with it. the storm is equivalent to a category 4 or 5 in the atlantic, think katrina in the united states. that is what we had last year in the philippines. so that is what we're looking at. we'll give you the latest advisory as it comes in. there is the track, already 38 people have died because of the storm in the philippines. o and it will be a good 24 hours, hala, to know what type of

damage and casualties we are dealing with which i believe we are in hainan and especially up towards guangdong right along the bays here as the storm continues to move in. there are about 10 million people here just to the northeast, not certainly as impacted as the area will be here by the category 4 and 5 winds over the next few hours. so we are now in the height of the storm. hala? >> ivan, thank you very much. let's bring our viewers up to date once more on our coverage out of eastern ukraine. as many of you know now the malaysian airlines passenger plane carrying 298 people from amsterdam to kuala lumpur, this is video of the aftermath. u.s. officials say they believe it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. they're not sure where that missile came from. however, the analysts we have spoken to as well as ukraine's government say that most likely pro-russia separatists are behind this. and they say as far as the

ukrainian government is concerned that they have intercepted a phone call between the alleged lebanon leadrussian discussing the incident. the separatists say they will allow investigators safe access to the crash site. that remains to be seen, however. they claim they recovered one of the plane's black boxes on thursday. the reuters journalist says that rescue crews have now found this second one. we're going to stay with this story, of course, on cnn and cnn international. stay with our continuing coverage of the crash of malaysian airlines flight 17. we're expecting a news conference from kuala lumpur shortly. and "early start" is coming up next. every day, people fall.

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we do begin with breaking news this morning. a passenger plane shot down over ukraine, 298 people killed. now, the hunt to find those responsible begins. ukraine blaming pro-russian militants, russia blaming u crane for the situation. this morning, live team coverage with new information we are learning about the crash. this morning, possible motives for the crime and the innocent passengers caught in this awful, awful cross fire. >> certainly a lot to