Flight MH17, a Malaysian Boeing 7777 plane, crashed in the Ukraine Thursday near the Russian border, which has been an area of extreme conflict between the two nations for the past few months. Here is what you need to know:
- The airline was carrying 295 people when it crashed: 280 passengers and 15 crew members.
Malaysia Airlines said the plane left from Amsterdam at 12:15 p.m. (local time) and was expected to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday at 6:10 a.m. (local time).
A regional airline official said the plane was flying at about 33,000 feet when radar lost track of it.
No survivors have been reported from the crash.
The crash has been declared by Ukrainian officials as an act of terrorism. The officials added that it may have been shot down by an antiaircraft system made in Russia.
U.S. Embassy officials were told by Ukrainian officials that the debris was spread out over 10 miles near the town of Shakhtars'k.
Ukraine's President Petro O. Poroshenko said he was calling for an immediate investigation of the crash. Mr. Poroshenko also called Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, to show his condolences and invite Dutch experts to help in the investigation.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. government was working to figure out whether there were any Americans aboard the plane. It has not been confirmed yet if any were onboard.
This is the second Malaysian Flight to be involved in a crash this year, the first being Malaysia Air Flight MH370, which was reported by officials to have disappeared in the Southern Indian Ocean on March 8th. The flight left from Kuala Lampur en route to Beijing, and was carrying 238 people.
MH17 would be the first commercial airline disaster to result from conflicts between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.
Aeroflot, Russia's national carrier, announced it had immediately suspended all flights to Ukraine for at least three days.
