A Malaysian Airlines passenger plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 295 aboard was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in Ukraine near the Russian border a day after a Ukrainian military jet was downed, Fox News reports.
The Boeing 777 was shot down at cruising altitude, according to Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister. He said it was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew people, all of whom were killed.
A source in the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transportation said the plane’s crew had not contacted Russian air traffic controllers. The plane was supposed to fly through Ukraine and Russia.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered the creation of a government commission, with the participation of ICAO officials and representatives of the Netherlands and Malaysia, to investigate the accident, ITAR-TASS reports.
The presidential press service said “the armed forces of Ukraine did not take any actions against air targets”.
“The President of Ukraine on behalf of the State expresses its deepest and most sincere condolences to the families and relatives of those killed in this terrible tragedy,” said a statement released by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s office. “Every possible search and rescue effort is being made.”
