A woman writes a message on a dedication board for the victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 airliner and the missing Flight MH370, in Subang Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur July 23, 2014. All sides in Ukraine's civil war must protect civilia
IN PHOTO: The moist towelette from a Malaysian Airlines flight, discovered on a Western Australian beach in July 2014, is unlikely to help the search of the missing flight MH370. The towelette was discovered by a WA couple. IN PHOTO: A woman writes a message on a dedication board for the victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 airliner and the missing Flight MH370, in Subang Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur July 23, 2014. All sides in Ukraine's civil war must protect civilians and take what measures they can to search for the victims of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 airliner and ensure their bodies are returned, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Samsul Said

The tragic downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 with 298 people on board on July 17, 2014 was reportedly a disaster Germany knew would happen anytime soon, yet failed to issue warnings to the global aviation industry, German public broadcasters WDR and NDR as well as the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", citing information contained in confidential reports from the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry reportedly had received a diplomatic cable two days before the MH17 disaster. The information in the cable warned of a "very alarming" and “worrying" situation relative to flying over war-torn eastern Ukraine. The document, marked "for internal use only," cited as reason the downing of an Antonov military cargo plane. This happened on July 14 wherein the aircraft was flying at an altitude of 6,000 metres (19,600 feet). MH17 had been flying at 10,000m (33,000 ft) when it was believed to have been hit by a Russian rocket launcher.

The downing of the military cargo plane, the Foreign Ministry wrote, was cause for "grave concern" because it gave "a new quality" or dimension to the airspace security situation over Ukraine, Deutsche Welle reports. German broadcasters WDR and NDR likewise found that the BND, the German foreign intelligence service, had issued similar warnings.

But German Lufthansa Airlines, where one of its planes flew over the same area just 20 minutes before MH17, said it didn’t receive any “communique" from the German Transport Ministry about the latest situation before the disaster happened. An unidentified source cited by Deutsche Welle authorities didn’t release information before July 17. “If the government has issued us with a 'qualitatively new' warning, Lufthansa would certainly not have continued to fly over eastern Ukraine.”

The Netherlands is leading the investigation into the tragedy since most of the victims were its citizens. A total of 283 passengers and 15 crew members died. The investigation is still ongoing and is expected to be concluded in October.

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