Very sad to hear Malaysia have lost another plane MH17

[jayjayjayjay]

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.

17. 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.

18. 18:33:

    An Associated Press reporter at the scene has counted at least 22 bodies at the scene of the accident

[rhythmworx]

Good source gathering and reporting.

Sad tragedy.

[MrWorldwide]

According to the reports on the Australia Network, all major airlines have now changed their flight paths on routes from Europe to Asia. Not sure that MAS can be faulted here - the plane was reportedly at 33,000 feet on a flight path used by the other airlines when the missile hit. The focus now seems to be on whether it was terrorists or an accidental strike courtesy of the Russian military. A tragic loss of life, whatever the cause.

[Tywais]

Topic now running here - http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/743739-mh17-malaysia-airlines-plane-shot-down-near-ukraine-border/

//Closed//