A Malaysia airlines flight carrying 298 people — 27 of whom were Australians — has crashed leaving no survivors to be found.
The tragic news was confirmed in the early hours of this morning after the plane went down near a rebel-held village of Grabovo. Malaysia Airlines said it had “lost contact” with flight MH17 from the Tamak waypoint, 50km from the Russian-Ukraine border after 12am.
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko insists the incident was a terrorist attack, saying, “This is not an incident or catastrophe, it is a terrorist attack.
We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky.”
Dutch authorities confirmed of the 295 people on board 154 were Dutch, 27 Australian, 23 Malaysian, 11 Indonesian, 6 from the UK, 4 German, 4 Belgium, 3 Philippines, 1 Canadian, and 47 remain to be unknown.
The heartbreaking news comes just four months after the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Malaysia Airlines has delivered the following official statement;
“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.”
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said of the incident, “Look, we just have all sorts of reports and claims flying around. That’s all we have at the moment – reports and claims. I’m very conscious of the fact that the Ukrainian president has made that statement (on the plane being shot down).
I believe they’ve been other statements from people in authority in Ukraine, but we just can’t say.
If it does turn out that this aircraft was brought down by a surface-to-air missile, there is no doubt this would be – under those circumstances – an unspeakable crime and the perpetrators should swiftly be brought to justice.”
US President Barack Obama commented, “The world is watching reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russia/Ukraine border, and it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy.
I have directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian government. The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why.
And as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all the families of the passengers, wherever they call home.”
Image credit: Courier Mail