France24 is calling it flight AH5017. I thought it was MD83?
German nationals were passengers on both this plane and MH17.
Pretty sure the AH is the fligfht number - all reports indicate it was a MD83 - last generation aircraft .Derivative of the DC-9 which starting in 1965........ Its a narrow body airliner...
They keep extending and improving on each model as the DC -9 faded the MD 80 was really the latest DC 9, but Douglas aircraft merge red with McDonald so they called it MD 80 (same thing as 777=100 777=200 etc. etc.)
The MD
80 itself started in 1980... and you will notice this is MD
83 so it is the third round of "refinements" on the basic airliner itself which itself was refinement of the
main design in 1965. It was a very popular jetliner, it had two engines ($) , passengers and crew liked her
..............the DC-9 was followed by the introduction of the
MD-80 series in 1980. The MD-80 series was originally called DC-9-80 series. It was a lengthened DC-9-50 with a higher
maximum takeoff weight (MTOW), a larger
wing, new main
landing gear, and higher fuel capacity. The MD-80 series features a number of variants of the
Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan engine having higher thrust ratings than those available on the DC-9.
The MD-80 series was further developed into the
McDonnell Douglas MD-90 in the early 1990s. It has yet another fuselage stretch, a glass cockpit (first introduced on the MD-88) and completely new
International Aero V2500 high-bypass turbofan engines. In comparison to the very successful MD-80, relatively few MD-90s were built.
To take the tale further Boeing bought MD and the 717 is a deriative of both DC-9 and MD- 80!!!!!!!!Whew huh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_MD-80
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-9#Legacy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-9
