LIVE BBC Ukraine airliner crash updates & Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With Plane Over Ukraine & Malaysia airliner crashes in east Ukraine near Russia border 17JUL14

IF this passenger aircraft was shot down by Ukrainian rebels or the Russians there should be swift and immediate action against the Russian government and economy. I may be jumping to conclusions but it will no be a surprise if it turns out the rebels or Russians are responsible, especially Russia (remember Korean flight 007 Russia shot down?) . From +NPR & +BBC News (click to go to their live update site).....

Live Text

Reporters: Sean Clare, Amber Dawson, Sarah Fowler and Jastinder Khera
Click to go to BBC BLOG

1. 19:20:
   Italy's Alitalia has joined the growing list of airlines to announce it is diverting flights away from eastern Ukraine in the wake of the incident. The list also includes: Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, Russia's Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines.
2. 19:13:
   President Obama says the plane crash is a "terrible tragedy" and that his first priority will be to determine if US citizens were on board. Speaking at an event in Delaware, he said the US will offer any assistance it can to help determine what happened. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families of the passengers, wherever they may call home," he adds.
3. 19:12:
   Images are continuing to come in from the crash site showing the debris:
   

   
4. 19:08:
   French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says "at least" four French nationals were on board the flight, AFP reports.
5. 19:05:
   The upper floor of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport has now been closed to media and reserved for family and relatives of passengers on flight MH17:
   

   
6. 19:05:
   Malaysia's official news agency Bernama reports that the foreign minister and the head of the armed forces have joined other ministers and the Prime Minister Najib Razak at Kuala Lumpur airport.
7. 19:04:
   The Malaysian airliner was flying normally without any problems until it disappeared from radar, the head of Ukraine's airspace regulation body says, as quoted by Reuters.
8. 19:00:
   A tweet (in Russian) from a key Twitter account used by pro-Russian separatists, in which they claim to have captured a Buk surface-to-air missile system, has now been deleted, BBC Monitoring observes. Ukrainians say the Malaysian plane could have been downed with a Buk, but pro-Russian rebels have now denied they have it.
9. 18:59:
   Part of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane lies in a field near the village of Grabovo. The airline's logo is clearly visible.
   

   
10. 18:53:
    More images have now emerged showing the devastation at the scene of the crash:
    

    
11. 18:51:
    An aviation expert has told the BBC it is unlikely that anyone survived the crash. Peter Felsted, the editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said sophisticated weaponry would have been needed to take down a flight travelling at such an altitude.
12.  
    

    Malaysian Astro Awani news website
    tweets: A press conference on MH17 incident with PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be held at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport anytime soon....
13. 18:42:
    The plane appeared to have broken up before impact, with the wreck scattered over a wide area in the village of Grabovo, AP reports.
14. 18:41:
    A Facebook page affiliated to Ukraine's pro-European EuroMaidan movement has posted images of Ukrainians offering condolences at the Malaysian embassy in Kiev, with one lady carrying a placard with the slogan: "Putin is a murderer", our colleagues at BBC Monitoring report. (Link in Ukrainian)
15.  
    

    Reuters
    tweets: #BREAKING: Number of dead from crash of #MH17 more than 300, includes 23 U.S. citizen: Interior Ministry adviser, quoted by Interfax
16. 18:40:
    A US State Department spokeswoman tells reporters they have no information on the cause of the crash or of casualties. She said she could not confirm if there were any US citizens on board or not.

1. 18:36:
   The route taken by flight MH17 was a well-flown route between Europe and Asia, a pilot tells BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott. He said that any troops should have known the path was full of civilian aircraft.
2. 18:33:
   An Associated Press reporter at the scene has counted at least 22 bodies at the scene of the crash.
3. 18:31:
   Dutch PM Mark Rutte is returning to the Netherlands from a summit in Brussels, Reuters reports. In a statement, he said he was "deeply shocked" by reports of the crashed plane, which took off from the Dutch capital Amsterdam, but added "much is still unclear about the facts, circumstances and the passengers".
4.  
   

   ABC News
   tweets: JUST IN: US State Dept. working to determine if there were any US citizens on board Flight MH17 - @AliABCNews
5. 18:30:
   Independent Malaysian news portal Malaysiakini says new transport minister Liow Tiong-lai is on his way back to Kuala Lumpur to handle the MH17 incident. He was visiting Beijing where his itinerary included discussion of the search of the missing flight MH370 with China.
6. 18:29:
   Another image of the debris of the Boeing 777 scattered on the ground:
   

   
7.  
   

   Russian News Agency RIA Novosti
   tweets: Putin expresses his "sincere condolences" to Malaysian PM on MH17 aircraft crash
8. 18:25:
   Graphic images from the crash site, showing debris and bodies, are currently being broadcast by the privately-owned pro-Kremlin rolling Russian news channel LifeNews, our colleagues at BBC Monitoring report.
9. 18:24:
   The Interfax news agency quotes Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying the incident was a "terrorist act", Reuters reports.
10. 18:20:
    The UK department of transport issues a statement stating: "Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region." Pilots around the world are being advised to plan routes that avoid the area, it adds.
11. 18:19:
    Malaysia Airlines is expected to hold a press conference on the incident at 04:00 local time (21:00 BST), the BBC understands.
12. 18:16:
    The plane went down near the village of Grabovo, which is currently under the control of armed pro-Russian separatists. The region has been the scene of severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels in recent days, AP reports.
13. 18:16:
    As well as Lufthansa, Russian airliner Transaero has also announced it is avoiding Ukrainian airspace for all future flights following the Malaysia airlines crash, Reuters reports.
14.  
    

    Reuters
    tweets: #BREAKING: Air France says has decided to avoid airspace of Eastern Ukraine
15. 18:05:
    Emergency services officials are surveying the crash site:
    

    
16. 18:03:
    Flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 12:14 local time. This AFP image was reportedly taken at the time.
    

    
17.  
    

    Carl Boylin in Leeds, UK
    emails: All aircraft should be rerouted in the short term to avoid any further loss of life
18. 17:59:
    German airline Lufthansa says it has decided to avoid eastern Ukrainian air space with immediate effect, Reuters reports.
19. 17:58:
    Another photograph from the crash site, taken by Reuters:
    

    
20. 17:57:
    "The portable air defence systems which we have, they work at a maximum of three to four thousand metres. Therefore, it is possible to say virtually before the start of the investigation that the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed this," separatist spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze says.
21. 17:57:
    A spokesman for pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region told Russia's Rossiya TV that they were not capable of bringing down a commercial airliner flying at 10,000 metres.
22. 17:56:
    Reuters has this photograph of a Ukrainian emergencies ministry worker at the crash site:
    

    
23.  
    

    Reuters news agency
    tweets: The site of a Malaysia Airlines plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in Donetsk region: http://bit.ly/1eP5C4X
24. 17:53:
    Malaysia's Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who dealt with the disappearance of MH370 in March in his capacity as acting transport minister, has appealed for calm on Twitter, saying he is working with the foreign, transport and prime minister on the issue - via BBC Monitoring
25. 17:52:
    A statement from Virgin Airlines says it "will be re-routing a small number of our flights this evening". It says it is closely monitoring the situation.
26. 17:51:
    Former UK ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton tells the BBC if the plane has been shot down it has "quite profound political implications". He says sanctions and "world condemnation" of the pro-Russia rebels could follow if it turns out they have shot down the plane.
27. 17:50:
    Malaysia Airlines has released a statement saying it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it had lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 GMT at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km (31 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border.
28. 17:46:
    AFP quotes the Kremlin as saying that Mr Putin "informed [President Obama] about an air-traffic controllers' report that came just before their phone conversation that a Malaysian plane crashed in Ukraine".
    

    
29. 17:45:
    US President Barack Obama has spoken via telephone to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the airplane crash, Reuters reports. The call had already been pre-planned on the situation in Ukraine, it adds.
30. 17:43:
    Novorossiya, one of several major pro-Russia separatist accounts on Twitter, says in a tweet (in Russian) that the Ukrainian air force brought down the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, our colleagues at BBC Monitoring report.
31.  
    

    Mike Boxall in Cambridge, UK
    emails: Why have international airlines continued to fly across this area of eastern Ukraine during this time of conflict? We have been reading reports of the increasing loss of military aircraft in this area, surely the airlines have a standard of customer care which should preclude overflying areas of conflict?
32.  
    

    Air transport editor for Flight International, David Kaminski
    tweets: Point of loss of #MH17 appears to coincide with airspace boundary between Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk flight information regions.
33. 17:38:
    If it was a missile that brought the aircraft down, it would have to be a long range one as opposed to a portable system, aviation analyst Chris Yates tells BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
34. 17:34:
    A map of the reported crash site in eastern Ukraine:
    

    
35. 17:33:
    According to a Reuters reporter at the scene, broken pieces of wing marked with Malaysia Airlines' red and blue - similar to those pictured below - have been seen among the wreckage.
    

    
36. 17:32:
    The BBC's Oleg Boldyrev in Moscow says the rebels do not have out-dated equipment. What they have equals or maybe surpasses the Ukrainian government's capabilities. He says some reports say the rebels even have fighter planes reportedly flown from Crimea and that possibility should not be excluded.
37. 17:31:
    Russian news agency RIA Novosti is also reporting that scores of bodies in Donetsk Region have been found strewn on the ground next to the plane wreckage.
38.  
    

    Reuters News Agency
    tweets: #BREAKING: Eastern Ukraine separatist leader Alexander Borodai says airliner shot down by Ukrainian gov. forces, Kiev denied involvement
39. 17:30:
    The Malaysia Airlines plane could have been shot down, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says in a statement. "This is a third such tragic event in recent days, when Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 aircraft have been shot down from Russian territory, " the statement says. "The Ukrainian armed forces did not attempt to shoot down targets in the air."
40.  
    

    Flight tracking site Flightradar24
    tweets: Last positions of #MH17 directly from Flightradar24 database. Signal was lost around 13:21 UTC at 33,000 feet.
    

    
41. 17:28:
    According to Reuters, there are dozens of bodies scattered around the wreckage of the jet. The agency quotes an emergencies services rescue worker as saying at least 100 bodies had so far been found at the scene, and that debris from the wreckage was scattered across an area up to about 15 km (nine miles) in diameter.
42. 17:26:
    Pro-Russia separatists in Donetsk have denied bringing down the aircraft, according to Interfax. "The plane was shot down by the Ukrainian side. We simply have no air defence systems of this kind," separatist spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze told the agency.
43. 17:20:
    Sources says the aircraft was a Boeing 777, similar to this one photographed earlier this year:
    

    
44.  
    

    Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News
    The only other possibility is for an aircraft at that height to be downed by a fighter carrying air-to-air missiles. The US will have access to satellite imagery that should be able to identify ultra-violet plumes if a long-range surface-to-air missile was fired.
45.  
    

    Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News
    A defence expert has told the BBC that shooting down a plane at 10,000 metres (9.7 miles) would have required a long-range surface-to-air missile - possibly guided by radar. That suggests it is unlikely it could have been downed by a portable air defence missile, or Manpad, which has a much shorter range.
46. 17:15:
    Interfax news agency quotes the Ukrainian presidential press service as saying that the Ukrainian armed forces were not involved in the Malaysian passenger plane "being brought down".
47. 17:14:
    A Reuters reporter has reached the scene and has described seeing burning wreckage of the airplane, with bodies on the ground, the agency reports.
48.  
    

    Mohd Najib Tun Razak, Malaysian prime minister
    tweets: I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.
49. 17:09:
    A number of military planes have been shot down by missiles in recent weeks over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatist rebels have been fighting government forces.
50. 17:08:
    BBC correspondent Oleg Boldyrev in Moscow says unconfirmed reports suggest people have seen wreckage on the ground. He adds that any investigation into what could have happened would be a "nightmare" for the authorities, given the tensions in the area.
51. 17:07:
    US stocks have fallen sharply amid reports of the latest Malaysia Airlines flight incident, according to AFP.
52.  
    

    Zeke Miller, Political reporter at Time Magazine
    tweets: WH: Obama has been briefed on reports of the plane
53. 17:06:
    If the deaths on board this flight are confirmed, it would be the second tragedy to strike Malaysia Airlines this year after the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March with 227 passengers and 12 members of crew on board - one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.
54. 17:05:
    The Ukrainian prime minister has reportedly launched an investigation into what he calls the "airplane catastrophe", according to Reuters.
55. 17:02:
    The Interfax-Ukraine news agency has quoted a Ukrainian Interior Ministry as saying he believes all 295 passengers on board have been killed.
56. 16:59:
    This map shows where contact was apparently lost with flight MH17 between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur:
    

    
57. 16:54:
    The UK Foreign Office says it is aware of the reports and is "urgently working to establish what has happened".
58.  
    

    Boeing Airplanes
    tweets: We are aware of reports on MH17. We're gathering more information.
59. 16:50:
    The Associated Press says one of its journalists saw a similar launcher near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhe earlier on Thursday.
60. 16:50:
    An advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashenko, says the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) when it was "hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher", in a post on his Facebook page, according to the Associated Press.
61. 16:42:
    Aviation expert Chris Yates says the plane would have been full, if reports that it was carrying 295 passengers are correct. He says the plane would have been flying at a height of some six miles (9.7km).
62. 16:39: Breaking News
    Malaysia Airlines tweets it has lost contact with flight MH17 from Amsterdam. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it says. "More details to follow."
63. 16:36:
    The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says that the area in which the plane is reported to have come down is right in the centre of the area controlled by anti-Kiev rebels - although of course details are still coming in.
64. 16:36:
    Again according to the Interfax agency only, Anton Herashchenko an adviser to the Ukrainian deputy interior minister has apparently confirmed the crash.
65. 16:34:
    The Interfax news agency reported 295 people - 280 passengers and 15 crew members - were on board the flight, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
66. 16:31:
    The Boeing 777 plane was flying in an international air corridor over eastern Ukraine when it crashed, the Russian news agency reported.
67. 16:27:
    The crash has reportedly happened on the Ukrainian side of the Russia - Ukraine border, scene of tension between the two countries.
68. 16:24:
    Reports suggest a passenger plane has crashed in eastern Ukraine. The early reports come from an "aviation source" who was quoted by the privately-owned Russian Interfax news agency

Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With Plane Over Ukraine

by

July 17, 201411:55 AM ET

This post was last updated at 12:20 p.m. ET.
Malaysia Airlines said Thursday that it has lost contact with a passenger jet over Ukraine.
"Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam," . "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow."
The was reporting that the Boeing 777 had crashed in eastern Ukraine. It cited a source in the aviation industry and said the aircraft is believed to have been carrying 280 passengers and a crew of 15. However, reports of a crash have not been confirmed.
"I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation," says Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak, in a tweet.
Flight 17 departed Amsterdam at 12:14 p.m. local time and was scheduled to land in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on Friday morning, according to the FlightAware site. Data on the site suggest the flight normally travels at an altitude of around 33,000 feet, or some 6 miles in the air.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday that "Armed Forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets," according to The Associated Press. The country has been grappling for months with a pro-Russia insurgency in the east.
A leader of separatists based in Donetsk, Ukraine, said his fighters also took no action, telling that they don't have weapons that could reach the that altitude.
Boeing issued a statement saying, "Our thoughts and prayers are with those on board the Malaysia Airlines airplane lost over Ukrainian airspace, as well as their families and loved ones. Boeing stands ready to provide whatever assistance is requested by authorities."
Details are only starting to emerge about the incident. We'll update this post as news allows.

  17 July 2014 Last updated at 13:06 ET

Malaysia airliner crashes in east Ukraine near Russia border

The crash site in Ukraine

A Malaysian airliner with 295 people on board has crashed in Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, amid allegations it was shot down.

Dozens of bodies are scattered around what is believed to be the wreckage of the jet near the village of Grabovo, a Reuters correspondent reports.
Flight MH17 had been due to enter Russian airspace when contact was lost.
Both the Ukrainian government and rebels have denied shooting it down in the region close to the Russian border.
Russian separatists are believed to have shot down two Ukrainian military planes over the region in recent days.

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The BBC's David Stern in Kiev: "Everybody at this point is denying any type of involvement in the crash "

The pro-Russian rebels have been fighting government forces in the region.

Analysis: Jonathan Beale, BBC News A defence expert has told the BBC that shooting down a plane at 10,000m (32,000ft) would have required a long- range surface-to-air missile - possibly guided by radar.
That suggests it is unlikely it could have been downed by a portable air defence missile, or Manpad, which has a much shorter range.
The only other possibility is for an aircraft at that height to be downed by a fighter carrying air-to-air missiles.
The US will have access to satellite imagery that should be able to identify ultra-violet plumes if a long-range surface-to-air missile was fired.

Ukraine has accused Russia's military of supplying advanced missiles to the rebels.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak reportedly said he was launching an immediate inquiry into the crash.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to his US counterpart, Barack Obama, by phone about the crash, the Kremlin said in a statement (in Russian).
"The Russian leader informed the US president about an air-traffic controllers' report that came just before their phone conversation that a Malaysian plane crashed in Ukraine," the statement said.
'Third downing' The plane fell between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk.

Malaysia Airlines in Kuala Lumpur said it had lost contact with the plane

Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the plane had been hit by a missile at an altitude of 10,000m (33,000ft). The claim could not be verified independently.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian officials blamed the Russian air force for shooting down one of its ground attack jets on Wednesday.
Confirming the crash, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said: "This is a third such tragic event in recent days, when Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 aircraft have been shot down from Russian territory.
"The Ukrainian armed forces did not attempt to shoot down targets in the air."
Separatist leader Alexander Borodai accused the government of downing the airliner.
"Apparently, it's a passenger airliner indeed, truly shot down by the Ukrainian air force," he told Russia's state-run Rossiya 24 TV broadcaster.
The UK Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports of the crash and was "urgently working to establish what has happened".
Russia implicated?

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Chris Yeats: "From that fairly high altitude it doesn't seem that there would be any likelihood of survivors"

Sir Tony Brenton, a former UK ambassador to Russia, told BBC News it would not be a huge surprise if suspicion initially fell on the rebels.
"That would be very damaging both for them and for their Russian supporters," he said.
"The Russians have undoubtedly been supplying them with weapons, almost certainly with anti-aircraft weapons, so Russia would very likely be implicated and that would raise the volume of international criticism of Russia."
This is also the second plane crash involving a Malaysian airliner this year, following the disappearance of Flight MH370 to Beijing in March.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 - Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur

Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Crew: 15
Passengers: 280
Left Amsterdam: 10:30 GMT
Lost contact: 13:20 GMT at 10,000m (33,000ft)