A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet carrying 295 individuals from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in an area of eastern Ukraine where separatist rebels have been partaking Ukrainian military forces in recent weeks.
Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, said the jet could are shot down.
"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine soldiers didn't fireplace at any targets within the sky," Poroshenko said in a statement.
Dozens of bodies were scattered round the smouldering wreckage of the plane, close to the village of Grabovo, regarding twenty five miles from the Russian border, per reporters at the scene.
Emergency workers said at least one hundred bodies had been found thus way, and wreckage was scattered across an space nine miles in diameter.
"I was operating in the sphere on my tractor after I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang and shots. Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke," a witness, who gave his name only as Vladimir, told Reuters.
In an exceedingly statement, Malaysia Airlines said Ukraine's air traffic management lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT) , approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
"Flight MH17 operated on a Boeing 777 departed Amsterdam at twelve.15pm (Amsterdam time) and was estimated to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at half dozen.10am (Malaysia time) the following day. The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew onboard." The flight also had a Dutch airline flight variety from KLM, KL4103.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, wrote on his Facebook page that the plane had crashed in Ukrainian territory once being hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. Associated Press said one in every of its journalists had seen a similar launcher near the city of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.
Leaders of the self-declared Donetsk individuals's republic denied any involvement, per Interfax news agency. A member of the republic's security council said rebel weapons solely had the capacity to shoot down a plane at three,00zero metres and blamed Ukrainian military forces for the attack.
Poroshenko known as for a commission to be set up to research the crash. "This is that the third tragic incident in recent days once Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 jets were shot down from Russian territory. We tend to don't rule out that this plane was additionally shot down, and we tend to stress that the Ukrainian military didn't take any actions to destroy targets within the air," he said.
In recent days the Ukrainian air force has lost planes in the area after they need been shot down by rebels. Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine accused Russia of downing one of its fighter jets inside Ukrainian territory. Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, rejected the allegation, telling reporters: "We tend to didn't do it."
The White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama had told his team to remain in shut touch with senior Ukrainian officers. "We're awake to reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russian-Ukraine border. The president has been briefed on these reports," Earnest said.
Earlier, Obama and therefore the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spoke on the phone regarding new US sanctions imposed on Moscow over its alleged failure to halt the flow of weapons and fighters to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
The White House didn't say whether the call occurred before or when reports of the crash emerged. However the Kremlin said Putin informed the US president of the reports on the call.
Many airlines, including British Airways, Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines and Russia's Transaereo announced they'd avoid Ukrainian airspace with immediate effect. Lufthansa said it'd steer clear of airspace over japanese Ukraine.
At least thirty Dutch-speaking passengers were on the plane, in step with 2 travel agencies which sold tickets for the flight. Consistent with Dutch newspaper websites, many Dutch passports were found near the scene of the crash.
The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, said via Twitter: "I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We tend to are launching an immediate investigation."
The country's defence minister tweeted that he was "monitoring closely" claims that MH17 had crashed, saying: "No comfirmation [sic] it was shot down! Our military are instructed 2 get on it!"
The crash comes four months when Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, 2-thirds of them Chinese citizens. It has nevertheless situated despite a huge international search, that is still ongoing, but Malaysia Airlines has said it believes everyone on board died when the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.
The reason for MH370's disappearance remains a mystery, with investigators suggesting the plane was deliberately diverted from its course, but there was no approach of knowing whether the pilots were responding to an emergency or whether or not there was malicious intent.
That aircraft was a Boeing-777 – the identical kind of plane as flight MH17.
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