(Ukraine) A Malaysian airliner with 295 people on board has crashed near the border between Ukraine and Russia and some of the earliest reports say it was shot down. There are believed to be no survivors.
The aircraft was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It has been identified as a Boeing 777, and Malaysian Airlines has confirmed that it has "lost contact" with Flight MH17 which left Amsterdam at 12.14 p.m.
The theory at the moment is that somebody mistook the airliner for a hostile military aircraft and shot it down with a Buk ground-to-air missile.
The aircraft was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It has been identified as a Boeing 777, and Malaysian Airlines has confirmed that it has "lost contact" with Flight MH17 which left Amsterdam at 12.14 p.m.
The theory at the moment is that somebody mistook the airliner for a hostile military aircraft and shot it down with a Buk ground-to-air missile.
Update
Moments after the plane crashed near the separatist stronghold village of Grabovo, rebel commander Igor Strelkov boasted that his forces had juts shot down an Antonov-26 air force plane. He tweeted:
“We just hit down An-26. We warned you… do not fly in ‘our sky.’ And here is the video confirmation of the ‘bird dropping."The message was deleted after it emerged the downed aircraft was a passenger jet. But the chilling video mentioned in the tweet was posted on Strelkov’s vk.com website which showed a plume of smoke emerging from the horizon as three men discuss the crash.
One says: “Just now the plane was hit.”
The second man replies in a happy voice: in happy voice: “All over, it is already over.”
The first man adds: “We are out now, watching, look at those black spots, these are the parts, flying, and it was a blast.”
Second man: “They got it, they hit it. They shoot and hit it.”
A third man, laughing, then says: “It was worth bringing this thing, wasn’t it?
