Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images.
A Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members crashed in eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, this morning. Although not yet confirmed, reports indicate that the plane was shot down by a missile, the Washington Post reports.
In a press conference in Wilmington, Del. this morning, President Barack Obama said that “the Unites States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened, and why.” He added that this “looks like it might be a terrible tragedy” and that the U.S.’s first priority is to determine whether there were any Americans onboard the plane.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Zoryan Shkyryak, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arseny Avakov was “quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that more than 300 innocent people have been killed” and that “it is known that 23 U.S. citizens were killed.” That information is still unconfirmed.
Details are still scarce as authorities go through the wreckage to recover any survivors and determine what happened, but the Post says “the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine immediately blamed each other for the crash, which occurred as the Boeing 777 was flying its regular route from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.”
The White House confirmed that, during a call with Vladimir Putin on the new sanctions regime, the Russian president mentioned reports of the downed plane to Obama.
Here’s the official statement from Malaysia Airlines:
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.
More details to follow.
