KYIV, ******* – A Ukrainian official said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down over a town in the east of the country, and ***************** tweeted that it ************ with one of its flights over Ukrainian airspace.
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Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to *******’s interior minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet). He also said it was hit by a ******* ***** from a *** launcher, which can **** missiles up to an altitude of 22,000 metres (72,000 feet).
The fate of the passengers wasn’t immediately known.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country’s ***** forces didn’t shoot at any airborne targets.
“We do not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the ***** Forces of ******* did not take action against any airborne targets,” he said. “We are sure that those who are guilty in this tragedy will be held responsible.”
***************** said on its Twitter feed that it “has ************ of **** from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace.” The plane’s destination was Kuala Lumpur.
It was the second time that a ***************** plane was lost in less than six months. ***************** Flight 370 disappeared in March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean far west of Australia.
Malaysian Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said on Twitter there’s no confirmation that Thursday’s plane was shot down. He said he has instructed the country’s military to check and get confirmation.
The Donetsk region government said Thursday’s plane crashed near a village called Grabovo, which it said is currently under the control of ***** pro-Russian separatists. The region where the flight was lost has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-****** separatist ****** in recent days.
A launcher similar to the *** ******* system was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne, which is held by pro-****** ******, earlier Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian *********** was shot down by an air-to-air ******* from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kyiv says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents in eastern *******. Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 *** hit by the air-to-air ******* was forced to bail after his *** was shot down.
Pro-****** ******, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the second *** was hit by a portable surface-to-air *******, but added the pilot was unscathed and managed to land his plane safely
Moscow denies Western charges that is supporting the separatists or sowing unrest in its neighbour. The Russian Defence Ministry couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday about the Ukrainian *** and ******’s foreign ministry didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Earlier this week, ******* said a military transport plane was shot down Monday by a ******* ***** from Russian territory.
The ***************** plane is a Boeing 777-200ER, which was delivered to ***************** on July 30, 1997, according to Flightglobal’s Ascend Online Fleets, which sells and tracks information about aircraft. It has more than 43,000 hours of flight time and 6,950 takeoffs and landings.
If the plane was shot down, it would be the fourth commercial airliner to face such a fate. The previous three were:
- April 20, 1978: Korean Airlines Flight 902, which diverted from its planned course on a flight from Paris to Seoul and strayed over the Soviet Union. After being ***** upon by an interceptor aircraft, the crew made a forced landing at night on the surface of a frozen lake. Two of the 97 passengers were ****** by the hostile ****.
- Sept. 1, 1983: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down by at least one Soviet air-to-air ******* after the 747 had strayed into Soviet airspace. All 240 passengers and 29 crew were ******.
- July 3, 1988: Iran Air Flight 655 Aircraft was shot down by a surface to air ******* from the American naval vessel U.S.S. Vincennes. All 16 crew and 274 passengers were ******.