Malaysia Airlines Flight Number MH17 has been reported lost at 14:15GMT today (Thursday, 17th July). Flight 17 was operating its normal service between Amsterdam Schipol Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport, utilising a Boeing 777-200 (registered as 9M-MRD) when contact was lost at 33,000ft.
Up until that time, there were no emergency calls, with the flight operating normally.
The aircraft came down near the village of Torez, near Shakhtersk, in the east of Ukraine, around 25 miles from the Russian border.
There has been no formal confirmation how this plane come down (with speculation rife on how it came down).
The flight had 280 passengers aboard, with 15 crew on the Boeing 777.
Malaysia Airlines released the following statement earlier today:
Released at 12:30am/18 July 2014
Malaysia Airlines confirms it received notification from Ukrainian ATC that it had lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT) at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
Flight MH17 operated on a Boeing 777 departed Amsterdam at 12.15pm (Amsterdam local time) and was estimated to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10 am (Malaysia local time) the next day.
The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew onboard.
More details to follow.
-end-
Footage has been released that the plane is down in multiple part over a wide area, however, very little of it has been verified (and some of it quite graphic) on twitter (using the hastag #MH17 WARNING – MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC IMAGERY ALONG WITH COMMENTARY. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.)
Airlines are actively avoiding the area and are diverting flights including Aeroflot, Lufthansa, Transaero, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Air France, Turkish Airlines and British Airways diverting flights around the area. EuroControl and Ukraine has closed the airspace in Eastern Ukraine.
Inquiries are being opened in Malaysia and elsewhere into the incident. As the situation becomes clearer – as well as the recovery of the black box devices and other intelligence may lead to an understanding what happened to bring that plane down.
It’s a very sad time when this happens – especially with the loss of life involved along with the sadness that will radiate from this incident.
As always in these situations, I will keep report the facts that have been known and confirmed, rather than speculation. I will not report on speculation or unconfirmed sources.
