Malaysia Airlines plane crash: Live updates as passenger jet comes down in Ukraine
The Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane, believed to have had 280 passengers and 15 crew on board, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur
The Ukrainian Prime Minister, Areseny Yatseniuk, has ordered an investigation into the "airplane catastrophe", his spokeswoman Olga Lappo says.
The country's presidential press service says Ukrainian armed forces were not involved in bringing the plane down.
Journalists on the scene says they have seen burning wreckage from the jet, and bodies on the ground.
A British Foreign Office official says it is "urgently working to establish what has happened".
Another video here shows smoke rising from a site near where the plane is said to have gone down.
Boeing says it is now investigating the crash.
The MH17 is understood to have been a Boeing 777.
This map shows MH17's last known position, over Donestsk in Ukraine.
One Ukrainian official claims MH17 was shot down by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, while flying at an altitude of 33,000ft.
The footage below shows the type of missile launcher they say was involved.
This video shows the site of the crash in Ukraine, near the town of Shakhtyorsk.
Malaysia Airlines has confirmed it has lost contact with flight MH17 from Amsterdam.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry says the plane was brought down by a ground-to-air missile.
280 passengers were on board, with 15 crew. All are believed to have died.
The Interfax report said the plane came down 50km (20 miles) short of entering Russian airspace.
An unnamed source said it "began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory."
The plane appeared to have come down in a region of military action where Ukrainian government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.
A separate unnamed source in the Ukrainian security apparatus, quoted by Interfax, said the plane disappeared from radar at a height of 10,000 metres after which it came down near the town of Shakhtyorsk.
Interfax news agency says the passenger airliner was shot down at an altitude of 10km above Eastern Ukraine.
A Malaysia Airlines plane has crashed in Ukraine with 295 people on board.
Reports this afternoon say the passenger jet was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and is thought to have crashed near to the Russian border.
The Russian Aviation Industry said the plane did not enter Russian airspace when expected, but crashed in Eastern Ukraine.
It comes just over four months after the airline's Flight MH370 disappeared without trace as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
By | Associated Press – 19 minutes ago
Official: Malaysian plane shot down over Ukraine
By | Associated Press – 19 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
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KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian official said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday over a town in the east of the country, and Malaysian Airlines tweeted that it lost contact with one of its flights over Ukrainian airspace.
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters (33,000 feet). He also said it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, which can fire missiles up to an altitude of 22,000 meters (72,000 feet).
Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed that it "has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow." The plane's destination was
It was the second time that a Malaysia Airlines plane had gone missing in less than six months. Malaysia Airlines 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.
The Donetsk region government said Thursday's plane crashed near a village called Grabovo, which it said is currently under the control of armed pro-Russian separatists. The region where theflight was lost has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent days.
A launcher similar to the Buk missile system was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kiev says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet hit by the air-to-air missile was forced to bail after his jet was shot down.
Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the second jet was hit by a portable surface-to-air missile, 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 neighbor. The Russian Defense Ministry couldn't be reached for comment Thursday about the Ukrainian jet and Russia's foreign ministry didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Ukraine said a military transport plane was shot down Monday by a missile fired from Russian territory.
The rebels are known to possess portable anti-aircraft rocket launchers, but Ukrainian officials say that kind of weapon would have been unable to
