What kind of a technical malfunction causes a new airliner to descend to the ground engulfed in flames mere minutes after takeoff? This has MH17 all over it. Sad.

This problem does not cause the airplane to catch fire...

But recent CFM56 engines om 737-800 disintegrating at high power does. There were two cases (with one passenger death and 8 injured) in the USA with 737-800 suffering damage after engine disintegrated in flight.

Source: https://www.flightglobal.com/in-depth/ntsb-to-address-rare-t...

This isn't a max 8

Yes, there is a CFM engine issue that affects 737NGs and that can result in engine failure soon after takeoff for some rare cases.

While from a statistical standpoint it's obviously not a coincidence given the ongoing warfare events, how could one even go a step further and call it a technical malfunction minutes after crash? You'd think Russia et al would improve their cover-up skills since the MH17 tragedy.

Sad to see 180 senseless deaths like this.

More and more new airliners come with real-time monitoring, especially for engines (often a separate monitoring system with sat uplink, part of a maintenance contract for the engine)