Malaysia Airlines MH17 crashes in east Ukraine 295 feared dead.

Malaysia Airlines MH17 crashes in east Ukraine 295 feared dead.

A Malaysian passenger aircraft crashed after being shot down near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, according to an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister. There were 295 people on board.

The commercial Boeing airliner was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, a source told the Interfax news agency.

Anton Gerashenko, an aide to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, wrote on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet over eastern Ukraine when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher and crashed near the city of Donetsk - a stronghold of pro-Russian rebels.

A similar launcher was reported by journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier today. The system can fire missiles up to an altitude of 72,000 feet.

The aircraft involved is understood to be a Boeing 777 with flight number MH17, which departed from Amsterdam at 12.14am local time, 15 minutes later than scheduled, according to flight records.

It was expected to arrive in Malaysia at 6:10am local time, but did not enter Russian airspace when it was expected to, a Russian aviation source told Reuters.

The Interfax report said the plane came down 50 km (20 miles) short of entering Russian airspace. It "began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory," the unnamed source said.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/