A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet carrying 295
people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in an area of eastern Ukraine where separatist rebels have been
engaging Ukrainian military forces in recent weeks. Ukraine's president, Petro
Poroshenko, said the jet may have been shot down.
"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," Poroshenko said in a statement.
The field next to the tiny rural
hamlet where MH17 plunged to the ground was a scene of charred earth and
twisted metal. Locals were distressed to find body parts scattered around the
scene. The body of what appeared to be a young woman lay about 500 metres from
the centre of the crash, while a dismembered foot could be seen on the one road
leading through the village.
A strong smell of aviation fuel hung
in the air as pro-Russian separatist fighters attempted to secure the area. Ten
fire engines remained on the scene after rushing there to extinguish the many
blazes caused by the crash.
One local resident, Alexander, said
he was working in the field a few hundred metres from its final resting place
when he looked up. He feared the aircraft was going to crash on him.
The house in which another local, also
named Alexander, and his relative, Olga, live in was just metres from the crash
site.
They said they thought the village
was being bombed after hearing two or three loud bangs before the force of the
impact threw them to the ground.
In a statement, Malaysia Airlines
said Ukraine's air traffic control lost contact with flight MH17 at 2.15pm GMT,
approximately 30 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
"Flight MH17, operated on a
Boeing 777, departed Amsterdam at 12.15pm [Amsterdam time] and was estimated to
arrive at Kuala Lumpur international airport at 6.10am [Malaysia time] the next
day. The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew." The flight also
had a Dutch airline flight number from KLM, KL4103.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to
Ukraine's interior minister, wrote on his Facebook page that the plane had
crashed in Ukrainian territory after being hit by a missile fired from a Buk
launcher. Associated Press said one of its journalists had seen a similar launcher
near the town of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.