Reports are coming out of the Ukraine that a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with 295 people onboard has in Ukraine, near the Russian border, on Thursday.
NBC reports that “according to the Interfax news agency, and an adviser to the Ukrainian government said that it had been shot down.”
The reports could not immediately be confirmed by NBC News, but Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter account that it had lost contact with an aircraft, Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. A Reuters correspondent in eastern Ukraine reported seeing the burning wreckage of a plane and bodies on the ground.
Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institute, tweeted that the jet had been ordered to be shot down by Donetsk separatist boss Strelkov, Kremlin’s proxy in war:
Separatist commander & Kremlin proxy Strelkov reported to have acknowledged shootdown thinking plane was Ukrainian pic.twitter.com/uaWKVlsA7q
— Strobe Talbott (@strobetalbott) July 17, 2014
Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow.
— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) July 17, 2014
Malaysia Airlines followed up their tweet a few minutes later with an update on their Facebook page:
NBC goes on to report:
A adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry said that Flight 17, a Boeing 777, had been shot down over a town in the east of the country, The Associated Press reported. Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting Ukrainian security forces in that region for months.
The adviser, Anton Gerashenko, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a launcher known as a Buk. A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Twitter: “I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.”
The Malaysian defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said that there was no confirmation that the plane had been shot down. He said on Twitter that the Malaysian military had been instructed to “get on it.”
Below is Anton Gerashenko’s post on Facebook, followed by a video showing smoke from an an apparent downed plane – linked to his post.
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