Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 With 295 Passengers Aboard Crashes in Ukraine

A Malaysian passenger plane has crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border.

Russian news agency Interfax reported that the Boeing 777 crashed in Ukraine's restive eastern region, near where government forces are fighting pro-Russian insurgents.

Some 295 people were said to be on board the aircraft, which was reportedly flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia Airlines tweeted:

An adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister claimed the plane was shot down.

Earlier a Ukrainian security spokesman has accused Russia's air force of shooting down one of its fighter jets while it was on a mission over Ukrainian territory.

Earlier this week, Kiev had also blamed Moscow for another Ukrainian military cargo that was downed as it was flying near the border.

Russian aviation sources said the plane didn't enter the Russian airspace when it was expected to and crashed in Ukraine about 60km from the border.

It "began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory," the unnamed source said.

Interfax quoted a separate source in the Ukrainian security apparatus as saying that the plane disappeared from radar at a height of 10,000 metres and came down near the town of Shakhtyorsk.

The incident comes months after Malaysia Airlines fight MH370 mysteriously disappeared with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board, as it was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.