Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 reportedly shot down near Ukraine-Russia border

At least one Canadian was among the 298peopleon board aMalaysian passenger airliner that senior U.S officials say wasshot down by a surface-to-air missile Thursday near the border of Ukraine and Russia.

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• Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: 1 Canadian aboard, official says
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U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden said the plane's downing was "not anaccident" and said the jet had been "blown out of the sky."

Several U.S.news agencies reported that according to senior U.S. officials,the plane had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile. But the officialswere not surewho had launched the missile.

Jos Nijhuis, CEO of Schiphol Airport, confirmed the 15-member crew were Malaysian nationals and said that along with at least oneCanadian, the plane also carried:

• 154 Dutch passengers.
• 27 from Australia.
• 28from Malaysia (including two infants).
• 12Indonesians (including one infant).
• Nine from the United Kingdom.
• Fourfrom Germany.
• Fourfrom Belgium.
• Threefrom the Philippines.

Nijhuis said the nationalities of some passengers were still being determined.

Of the passengers on board, officials said several were world-renowned researchers heading to an international AIDS conference in Australia. The plane was scheduled to continue flying to Perth after stopping in Kuala Lumpur, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Brisbane.

"We understand from reports that a Canadian citizen is among the dead. On behalf of the Government of Canada, Laureen and I offer our thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of the victims of this outrageous act," he said.

While we do not yet know who is responsible for this attack, we continue to condemn Russias military aggression and illegal occupation of Ukraine, which is at the root of the ongoing conflict in the region."

Harper also said Canada stands ready to "provide whatever support it can" to determinethe cause of the crash.

UN calls emergency meeting

The UNSecurity Council will hold an emergency meeting on Ukraine on Friday and is mulling a draft statement calling for "a full, thorough and independent international investigation."

The British-drafted statement, reviewed by Reuters, stressed the need for "all parties to grant immediate access by investigators to the crash site to determine the cause of the incident."

Such informal statements by the 15-member council are agreed by consensus. If there were no objections the statement was due to be issued later on Thursday.

But diplomats said Russia had asked for the deadline to be extended until Friday morning to give it more time to review the three paragraph statement.

The Security Council is then due to meet to discuss the situation in Ukraine at 10 a.m. ETFriday.

The draft statement calls for an investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines and "for appropriate accountability."

Bodies, wreckage strewn about

Reuters reported that one of itscorrespondents in Eastern Ukraine saw theburning wreckage of an airplane Thursday, with bodies on the ground. Meanwhile, an emergency services rescue worker said at least 100 bodies had been found at the scene, near the village of Grabavo. Grabavo is in the eastern province of Donetsk,which is under the control of pro-Russia separatists and has been the site ofsevere fighting between rebels and thegovernment for several months.

Witnesses reported debris from the wreckage was strewn about.

The Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew members, was shot down at an altitude of 10,000 metres above Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian bureau of the Russia-based news agency Interfax reported. The Boeing plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Officials had initially reported that 280 passengers were on board but Malaysia Airlines later revamped the numbers.

"Everything I've seenso far tiesdirectly with this aircraft being feasibly shot down by a surface-to-air missile," Jock Williams, retired Canadian military pilot andformer Transport Canada flight safety officer and artillery expert, told CBC News on Thursday afternoon.

UkrainianPresidentPetroPoroshenkosays his country's armed forces did not shoot at any airborne targets.

"Wedo not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the armed forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets," he said.

The Associated Press reported that AntonGerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, saidon his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres when it was hit Thursday by a missile fired from aBuklauncher.

The European air traffic control agency Eurocontrolsaidthe aircraft was flying above the airspace that had been closed byUkrainianauthorities. Theroute had been closedfrom ground to flight level 320 [32,000 feet] the aircraft was flying at Flight Level 330 [33,000 feet].

Separatist leader Andrei Purgin told the news agency that he was certain that Ukrainian troops had shot the plane down but gave no explanation or proof for his statement. He said he did not know whether rebel forces owned Buk missile launchersbut said even if they did, theyhad no fighters capable of operating them.

A launcher similar to theBukmissile system was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town ofSnizhne, which is held by pro-Russia rebels, earlier Thursday.

2nd Malaysia plane mishap in 5months

Russia's UNAmbassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at UNheadquarters in New York on Thursday that Russia did not shoot down the Ukrainian fighter jet on Wednesday. "We didn't do it," Churkin said.

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However, Ukrainians secret service said it had recordings of two calls; one that they claimed reveal a rebel commander telling a Russian military intelligence officer that rebel forces had shot down the plane. The secret service said the second call reveals two rebel fighters talking about shooting down the plane.

VadymPrystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada, said on CBCs Power & Politics that the recordings suggest that the rebels believed they had shot down a Ukrainian military aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that itreceived notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 at 10 a.m. ETaround 30 kilometresfrom Tamak waypoint, approximately 50 kilometresfrom the Russia-Ukraine border.

This is the second incident in less than fivemonths involving a Malaysia Airlines plane.Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared in March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search for the wreckage of the plane has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean far west of Australia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday's plane did not make any distress call and that its flight route had been declared safe by the global civil aviation body.

After speaking with leaders of Ukraine, the Netherlands and U.S. President Barack Obama, Razak said"no stone will be left unturned" in finding out what happened to Flight 17.

He told reporters that Ukrainian authorities believe the Boeing 777-200was shot down Thursday, but said that Malaysia itself is "unable to verify the cause of this tragedy."

"If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice," he said.

Airlines to avoid Eastern Ukrainian airpace

A number of airlines said they will avoid the airspace of Eastern Ukraine following theincident.

Angela Mah, a spokeswoman for Air Canada, said the airline had been "proactively" avoiding that airspace for some time.

"Wedo not foresee any impact on our passengers," she said in an email to CBC.

Arthur Rosenberg, an American lawyer who specializes in aviation cases, told CBC Newsthat the U.S. had already issued anotice to pilots and airplanes tostay away from thearea because it's incredibly dangerous.

He said thatjust days ago, one of the leaders of thepro-separatist movement in the Ukraine took responsibility for shooting down a Ukrainian transport aircraft and had issued awarning tostay out of theirairspace.

"That was a very foreboding warning which apparently was not heeded Ihate to point the finger at this point by Malaysian Airlines. Bottom line is good God, what were they doing in that airspace? It makes absolutely no sense."

Williams said if a missile did shoot down the plane, the missilewould have had 50 to100 pounds ofexplosive chargeand would be aneffective type of warhead that wouldteara plane apart.

"So,the plane could be virtually disintegrated in the air, or it could have been able to at least attempt to glide in and land with some control perhaps not full control but some control," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine bears responsibility for the crash.

"This tragedy would not have happened if there were peace on this land, if the military actions had not been renewed in southeastUkraine," Putin said, according to a Kremlin statement issued earlyFriday. "And, certainly, the state over whose territory this occurredbears responsibility for this awful tragedy."