Malaysian plane crashes on Ukraine-Russia border - live

[Magda Hassan]

Well this will be awkward. I'm putting it here until it becomes clear what is happening. In any case it will probably be the end of Malaysian Airlines as a business. Two planes lost in very odd circumstances.

Malaysian plane crashes on Ukraine-Russia border - live

A Malaysia Airlines passenger plane has reportedly crashed in Ukraine, on the border with Russia. All the latest details here

Malaysian Airlines Boeing777 has crashed on Ukraine-Russian border Photo: RilekOne Corner/ YouTube









By Harriet Alexander, and Roland Oliphant

4:34PM BST 17 Jul 2014
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Interfax reports that a Malaysian plane has crashed in Ukraine
The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur
295 people were on board
Reports that the plane could have been shot down


16.42 The Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, quoted by Interfax, says there are no survivors.


16.38 More footage is emerging of the scene, minute by minute.

This is the latest from YouTube




16.36 Our Washington correspondent, Raf Sanchez, has the following observation:
It's still not clear what happened to today's Malaysia Airlines flight but last night, as the US announced new sanctions on Russia, American officials suggested Russian weapons were behind the downing of a Ukrainian transport aircraft on Monday. Here's what they had to say:
"On July 14th, Ukrainians lost an An-26 transport jet, which was shot down from an altitude of 21,000 feet, with eight crew on board. And only very sophisticated weapons systems would be able to reach this height."
16.35 <noframe>Twitter: Sky News Newsdesk - Update - Interfax news agency reports Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board was shot down at altitude</noframe>
16.34 Interfax are saying that the plane was shot down.
16.28 Initial reports suggested that the flight could have been Malaysia Airlines MH17, which left Amsterdam at 12.14.
It was due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 06.09.
16.27 Unconfirmed reports on Twitter showed YouTube footage of a large pall of smoke in fields near Shaktersk.
The footage could not be verified.



16.20 The plane is thought to have crashed near Shaktersk.

16.15 Interfax news agency are claiming that a Malaysian passenger plane has crashed in Ukraine, near the Russian border.
"A Boeing Malaysian Airlines that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur began to descend about 50km before entering Russian airspace, and was subsequently found burning on the ground in Ukraine," an aviation source told Interfax.
Interfax said that 295 people were on board at the time.