Ukraine airliner 'crash' updates

Key Points

• 
  A Malaysian airliner has reportedly crashed in Ukraine, near Russian border
  
  Malaysia Airlines says it has lost contact with Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur
  
  Russian news agency Interfax quotes aviation sources as saying there were 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board
  
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Live Text

• Reporters: Sean Clare, Amber Dawson, Sarah Fowler and Jastinder Khera
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  1. 
     

     Zeke Miller, Political reporter at Time Magazine 
     tweets: WH: Obama has been briefed on reports of the plane
  2. 17:06: 
     If the deaths on board this flight are confirmed, it would be the second tragedy to strike Malaysia Airlines this year after the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March with 227 passengers and 12 members of crew on board - one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.
  3. 17:05: 
     The Ukrainian prime minister has reportedly launched an investigation into what he calls the "airplane catastrophe", according to Reuters.
  4. 17:02: 
     The Interfax-Ukraine news agency has quoted a Ukrainian Interior Ministry as saying he believes all 295 passengers on board have been killed.
  5. 16:59: 
     This map shows where contact was apparently lost with flight MH17 between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur:

     
  6. 16:54: 
     The UK Foreign Office says it is aware of the reports and is "urgently working to establish what has happened".
  7. 
     

     Boeing Airplanes 
     tweets: We are aware of reports on MH17. We're gathering more information.
  8. 16:50: 
     The Associated Press says one of its journalists saw a similar launcher near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhe earlier on Thursday.
  9. 16:50: 
     An advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashenko, says the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) when it was "hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher", in a post on his Facebook page, according to the Associated Press.
  10. 16:42: 
      Aviation expert Chris Yates says the plane would have been full, if reports that it was carrying 295 passengers are correct. He says the plane would have been flying at a height of some six miles (9.7km).
  11. 16:39:BREAKING NEWS 
      Malaysia Airlines tweets it has lost contact with flight MH17 from Amsterdam. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it says. "More details to follow."
  12. 16:36: 
      The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says that the area in which the plane is reported to have come down is right in the centre of the area controlled by anti-Kiev rebels - although of course details are still coming in.
  13. 16:36: 
      Again according to the Interfax agency only, Anton Herashchenko an adviser to the Ukrainian deputy interior minister has apparently confirmed the crash.
  14. 16:34: 
      The Interfax news agency reported 295 people - 280 passengers and 15 crew members - were on board the flight, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
  15. 16:31: 
      The Boeing 777 plane was flying in an international air corridor over eastern Ukraine when it crashed, the Russian news agency reported.
  16. 16:27: 
      The crash has reportedly happened on the Ukrainian side of the Russia - Ukraine border, scene of tension between the two countries.
  17. 16:24: 
      Reports suggest a passenger plane has crashed in eastern Ukraine. The early reports come from an "aviation source" who was quoted by the privately-owned Russian Interfax news agency