MAS plane crashes in Ukraine; 295 feared dead

KIEV — A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 carrying 295 people crashed yesterday in Ukraine, near the Russian border, with a Ukrainian official saying it was shot down.

Mr Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on his Facebook page Flight MH17 was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, which can fire missiles up to an altitude of 22,000m. He said the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000m.

The regional government of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk said the plane crashed near a village called Grabovo, which it said is currently under the control of armed pro-Russian separatists. The region where the flight was lost has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent days.

Ukraine’s President, Mr Petro Poroshenko, said in a statement he was calling for an immediate investigation of the crash. His press secretary told Reuters he believed the crash was “not an incident … but a “terrorist act”.

Malaysia Airlines, still reeling from the mysterious loss of another Boeing 777 flight in March, last night said on its Twitter feed it had lost contact with Flight MH17, which took off from Amsterdam. “The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace,” it said.

In a statement at 12.30 am, it said it received notification from the Ukrainian authorities that it had lost contact with the plane at 1415 GMT, about 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border. The plane left Amsterdam at 12.15pm local time and was due to arrive at Kuala Lumpur this morning at 6.10, the airline added. The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members. A Reuters report citing a Ukrainian interior ministry aide said the dead included 23 US citizens.

In a Twitter post around midnight, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said: “I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.”

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on his Twitter that he was “shocked & saddened” over the news of the crash. “Our thoughts & prayers are with the passengers & crew, & their families,” he wrote.

An Associated Press journalist counted at least 22 bodies at the crash site 40km from the Russian border, an area where pro-Russian rebels have been active and have claimed to have shot down other aircraft.

A launcher similar to the Buk missile system was seen by AP journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier yesterday. But rebels in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said they were not involved, Interfax news service reported, citing Mr Sergey Kavtaradze, a security official with the group.

President Obama and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke by telephone, and Mr Putin raised the issue of the reports of the downed plane, White House officials said.

Ukraine has lost multiple aircraft to the rebels. On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said yesterday, adding to what Kiev says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

This is the second tragedy to strike a Malaysia Airlines plane in four months. MH370 disappeared in March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean. AGENCIES