Russian media reports say a Malaysian airliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in eastern Ukraine.
Malaysia Airlines reported on Twitter that it lost contact of a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Ukrainian airspace Thursday. The plane was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members.
A Ukrainian interior ministry official, Anton Gerashchenko, said the airliner was hit by a ground-to-air missile.
In a posting on his Facebook page, Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said the plane was flying at 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher.
The Buk is a sophisticated, medium-range, Russian-designed surface-to-air missile systems that can fire missiles up to 72,000 feet.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statment on the presidential website that he does not rule out that the airliner was shot down but stressed that the Ukrainian military was not involved.
