18.07 Malaysia Boeing MH17 Crash in Ukraine

MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) - A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the town of Torez in the Donetsk Region on Thursday, July 17, killing all the 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board.

Media reports suggested that the ill-fated plane changed its route and was downed by a surface-to-air missile. But Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Friday the airliner did not divert from its previously approved flight path while travelling above the violence-hit country,

Earlier on Thursday, Malaysia Airlines confirmed it had lost contact with a Boeing-777 aircraft when it was in the Ukrainian airspace

Europe’s air traffic control service Eurocontrol said Friday it had no reason to believe the Malaysian plane had experienced any kind of problems before going off radar screens.

“We have no reason to assume whatsoever that there was anything abnormal with the flight before the flight disappeared from radar screen,” said Brian Flynn, the head of Performance, Forecasting and Relations in the organization’s Network Manager Directorate (NMD).

Kiev blamed independence supporters in the turbulent Donetsk Region for downing the passenger plane with a surface-to-air missile. Militia forces said they had no missile systems that could hit a target flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

The Russian Defense Ministry says it had intercepted the operation of a Ukrainian radar system on June 17, the ministry’s press service said Friday.

“Throughout the day on July 17, Russian means of radar surveillance intercepted the operation of the Buk-M1 battery’s Kupol radar station located in the region of the populated area of Styla (30 kilometers south of Donetsk),” the press service said in a statement.

“The technical capabilities of the Buk-M1 allow the exchange of data on air targets between batteries of one battalion. Thus, the launch of rockets could have also occurred from any of the batteries deployed in the populated area of Avdeevka (8 kilometers north of Donetsk) or from Gruzsko-Zoryanskoe (25 kilometers east of Donetsk),” the ministry said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said the crashed airliner was out of Russian missile range.

“Boeing 777 flew outside of the Russian air defense coverage and was in the Ukrainian airspace under the supervision of its air traffic controllers,” it said in a statement.