Malaysia Airline Flight MH17 Crashes, 298 Passengers & Crew Dead, Including 23 Americans (Update: Missile Shoots Down Plane)

Malaysia Airline Fight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was traveling at an altitude of 33,000 feet when contact was lost. As reported at Sky News, the plane was said to be  brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile.  The plane crash killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, including children. It is reported that there were 23 Americans listed on the flight manifest; however, there is yet to be confirmation. The victims abord Malaysia Flight MH 17 include nine Britons, the victims included 154 Dutch, 45 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and one Canadian.

As pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government traded charges about who was behind the surface-to-air missile that downed a Malaysia Airlines jet with 298 aboard Thursday, Ukraine’s separatist rebels on Friday said they have found “most” of the plane’s recording devices.

The Boeing 777 bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot down Thursday afternoon at cruising altitude about 35 miles from the border, according to Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister.

Malaysia Airlines originally said there were 280 passengers and a crew of 15 aboard the flight, though it later upped the number of passengers to 283 to account for three infants.

The flight path of Malaysia Arline Flight MH17 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down and crashed in Ukraine can be seen at the Business Insider. Read the continual updates from The Guardian of the terrible events.

CNN – VIDEO

CNN – VIDEO

UPDATE I: U.S. official: Missile shot down Malaysia Airlines plane.

A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed in a rebel-controlled part of eastern Ukraine on Thursday, spurring swift accusations from Ukrainian officials that “terrorists” shot down the aircraft.

The United States has concluded a missile shot down the plane, but hasn’t pinpointed who was responsible, a senior U.S. official told CNN’s Barbara Starr.

The Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard fell from the sky near the town of Torez in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, officials said. A top Ukrainian official said the plane, which was on the way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was flying at about 10,000 meters (nearly 33,000 feet) when the missile hit.