One of the worst airline disaster took place yesterday, July 17, 2014, when a Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down in Ukraine with a total of 298 people on board the ill-fated passenger plane. The Malaysian Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 crashed in the war-torn Ukraine near the Russian border.
Watch the video report by EuroNews:
According to initial reports from Malaysian Airlines officials, a total of 298 people were on board the plane, which comprised of 283 passengers and 15 crew members. The passengers includes 154 Dutch nationals, 43 Malaysians including the 15 crew members and 2 infants, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians with one infant, nine British, four Germans, three Filipinos and one Canadian.
Based upon the Malaysian Airlines statement a total of four Belgians were on board the ill-fated MH17 but the Belgian Embassy noted that five of their nationals were on board the plane. The identities of the remaining 41 passengers are still unverified according to the official statement released by the airline company, Malaysian Airlines.
The Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 flew from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but the Boeing civilian plane disappeared from radar screens before crashing with 298 people on board in the war-torn Eastern portion of Ukraine.
The Air Traffic control in Amsterdam noted that they lost contact with the Boeing 777-200 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 at around 14:15 (12:15 GMT) near the Russian-Urkrainian border. The flight took off from Schipol airport in Amsterdam shortly after noon on Thursday and was supposed to land in Kuala Lumpur at around 6:10 AM Friday, local time.
Based upon the initial reports of international news media organizations, the Pro-Russian separatists group and the Kiev government officials blamed each other for the crash, after the plane was apparently hit by a surface-to-air missile.
