A Malaysia Airlines passenger plane was reportedly shot down in Ukraine near the Russian border Thursday.
The Boeing 777 had 280 passengers and 15 crew members, Interfax reported citing an an aviation industry source.
Malaysia Airlines confirmed it lost contact with the flight.
It came down just 20 miles short of entering Russian airspace in an area where the Ukrainian government has been fighting pro-Russian rebels.
It “began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory,” a unidentified source told Reuters.
Flight Aware shows the flight was heading from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the main international airport in the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur International Airport outside Kuala Lumpur, the most populous city of Malaysia.
This is the first Malaysia Airlines flight to crash since Flight 370, which mysteriously vanished in March – sparking an international search effort.
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