A MALAYSIA Airlines plane with 295 people on board, including 27 Australians, has been shot down in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine.
Plumes of black smoke rose up near a rebel-held village of Grabovo in eastern Ukraine, at the crash site 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Russian border. No survivors have been found.
Dutch authorities confirmed 27 Australians were on board, as well as 154 Dutch, 23 Malaysian, 11 Indonesian, six from the UK, four German, four Belgium, three Philippines, one Canadian and 47 were still unknown.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said anyone with concerns can call the hotline on 1300 555 135.
People stand next to the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines flight. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET Source: AFP
Australian passport found at Malaysia Airlines wreckage site. Photo: Live Leak Source: Supplied
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko was quoted as saying the plane had been shot down by a ground-to-air missile.
CNN is also reporting that senior US officials have concluded the plane was shot down but were divided over the origin.
“One radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft right before the plane went down Thursday,” CNN is reporting.
Australian Federal MP Christopher Pyne said there was no doubt that the plane was shot out of the sky. But Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that at this stage it had been unable to verify the cause of the tragedy.
Earlier Mr Gerashchenko told the Wall Street Journal pro-Russia rebels had set up a ground-to-missile battery near the Russian border by the town of Snizhne.
“They clearly thought that it was a military transport plane that they were shooting at,” he said. “They were the ones who did this.”
Wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET Source: AFP Source: AFP
The plane appeared to have broken up before impact and the burning wreckage — which included body parts and the belongings of passengers — was scattered over a wide area.
Shocking photos of bodies among the wreckage have been posted on Twitter.
The flight MH17, a Boeing 777-200, was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian officials lost contact with it about 12.15am Sydney time.
“Malaysia Airlines confirms it received notification from Ukrainian ATC that it had lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT) at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border,” the carrier said in a statement on Facebook.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the downing an act of terrorism and called for an international investigation into the crash.
The village of Grabovo is currently under the control of the separatists and the area has seen severe fighting between the two sides in recent days.
A man stands next to the wreckage of the Malaysian Airlines plane. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET Source: AFP
Wreckage near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET Source: AFP
Luggage on the site of the crash of the crash. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET Source: AFP
Flames among the wreckage. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET Source: AFP
SEPARATISTS BLAMED
In a statement, Mr Poroshenko said the plane “disappeared from radar screens”.
“In recent days, this is the third tragic accident after the Russian territory were downed aircraft AN-26 and SU-25 Armed Forces of Ukraine. We do not exclude that this aircraft was also shot down, and stress that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not commit any action to defeat the purposes of the air,” Mr Poroshenko added.
A defence expert told the BBC that shooting down a plane at that height would have required a long-range surface-to-air missile — possibly guided by radar.
Oleg Tsarev, one of the leaders of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, told Time that the rebels did not shoot the plane down.
“We don’t have weapons that can take down a plane from that altitude,” he said, minutes after news of the crash broke.
But there are reports that rebels did have an anti-craft military station and the Russian state media even congratulated the rebels on their new Russian-made Buk missile launchers seized from a Ukrainian air force base.
“The Donetsk resistance fighters have captured an anti-aircraft military station,” the Kremlin’s main television network Vesti announced three weeks ago.
Since then there has been regular downings of Ukrainian aircraft including an AN-26 military transport plane shot down on Monday. Its four crew members were taken hostage after they ejected from the aircraft, rebels later confirmed.
According to The Telegraph, the DPR also posted a Twitter picture of a missile system that it captured when it overran a Ukrainian army garrison on June 29.
A spokesman told Voice of Russia radio at the time: “The forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic assumed control of A-1402 (regiment’s) military base” and boasted of capturing the Buk launcher.
Ukrainian government forces manoeuvre a Buk anti-aircraft missile launcher. AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky Source: AP
A similar weapon was reportedly seen by an Associated Press journalist on Thursday in Snizhne.
As news spread of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight, the separatists deleted the Twitter photo of the captured missile system.
A raft of global airlines, including Air France, Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, swiftly responded to the disaster by saying they had been avoiding airspace over eastern Ukraine due to safety concerns.
They were further advised on Thursday to avoid Ukraine’s airspace
In France, a statement by junior transport minister Frederic Cuvillier said he had advised “French airlines to avoid Ukraine’s air space as long as the reasons behind this catastrophe are not known.”
FLIGHT PATH
Flight MH17 departed Amsterdam at 12:15pm (Amsterdam local time) on Thursday and was scheduled to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6:10am (Malaysia local time) the next day.
The plane disappeared from radar when flying at 10,000 metres cruising altitude, Interfa-Ukraine reports.
The plane’s black box has reportedly been recovered from the wreckage by Pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, according to Interfax.
But the head of Ukrainian Emergency Situations has since reportedly claimed that search efforts at the scene are being hampered by “armed terrorists”.
The crash comes just four months after the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which remains missing.
Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak said he was “shocked” by the reports. “We are launching an immediate investigation,” he said.
The Kremlin said US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had discussed the crash over the phone.
At a later press conference Mr Obama said “it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy”.
“Right now we’re trying to determine whether there were American citizens on board, that is our first priority,” Mr Obama said.
He said US would offer any assistance it could to determine what happened.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the passengers, wherever they call home.”
It was the second time that a Malaysia Airlines plane was lost in less than six months. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean far west of Australia.
Malaysia Airlines shot down on Ukraine-Russia border.Source: Supplied
Smoke billows into the sky from the stricken aircraft. Source:Supplied
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