Kuala Lumpur/Kiev, Jul 18: All 295 people on board a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 were killed on Thursday after it was shot down by “terrorists” over war-torn eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.
The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members.
Nearly four months ago, another Malaysia Airlines plane, MH370, disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Indian Ocean.
The airlines confirmed that it received notification from the Ukrainian Air Traffic Control that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 at 14:15 GMT (8:45 IST) at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
“Malaysia Airlines has lost contact with MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position of the plane was over Ukrainian airspace,” the airlines tweeted.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the jetliner may have been shot down over his country's airspace.
“This incident is not a catastrophe. It is a terrorist act,” he said. “We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky,” Poroshenko added.
“Nearly 300 people died when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed in eastern Ukraine,” an advisor to the Ukrainain Interior Minister, Anton Herashchenko, said in a Facebook post. “The aircraft was shot down by terrorists operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system,” Herashchenko added.
While Ukraine accused militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia of shooting down the plane, rebel leaders in the Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement.
However, around the same time, their military commander said his forces had shot down a much smaller Ukrainian transport plane, their third such hit this week. Burning aircraft wreckage and bodies strewn on the ground were seen at the village of Grabovo, around 40 km from the Russian border where the pro-Russian rebels are active.
A number of Ukrainian military planes have been shot down by missiles in recent weeks.
Ukraine has accused Russia's military of supplying advanced missiles to the rebels, the BBC reported.
Tensions have been high between Ukraine and Russia since street protests forced pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych to step down in February. “I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak tweeted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “expressed deep condolences” to the Malaysian prime minister. He “asked to pass the most sincere word of condolences and support to families and relatives of the victims.” Several airlines, including Lufthansa and Air France, said they will now avoid eastern Ukrainian airspace.
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