01:28Netherlands: Malaysia Airlines official "announces and confirms" loss of MH17
Malaysian Airlines Vice-President Huib Gorter confirmed with "intense regret" that the company had received a notification from the Ukrainian aircraft control lost contact with the aircraft MH17 at 14:15 GMT, during a press conference in Amsterdam on Thursday.
The Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, went down in eastern Ukraine earlier on Thursday. The crash site of the plane was found near the settlement of Grabovo in Donetsk region, located approximated 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the border with Russia.
He confirmed that victims include 154 Dutch, 27 Australian, 23 Malaysians, eleven Indonesians, six from the UK, four German, four Belgian, three from Philippines and one Canadian citizen. Other nationalities have not been identified yet, but data is being verified. Gorter also said that their efforts were now focussing on supporting the relatives of the victims. President of the Schipohl group, Joe Nijhuis, and the Malaysian ambassador to the Netherlands, Fauziah Mohd, accompanied him at the press conference.
The aircraft was reportedly flying at an altitude of around 10,600 (34,700 feet) when ground control lost contact. It has not yet been confirmed how the plane was brought down.
01:28Malaysian Airlines Vice-President Huib Gorter confirmed with "intense regret" that the company had received a notification from the Ukrainian aircraft control lost contact with the aircraft MH17 at 14:15 GMT, during a press conference in Amsterdam on Thursday.
The Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, went down in eastern Ukraine earlier on Thursday. The crash site of the plane was found near the settlement of Grabovo in Donetsk region, located approximated 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the border with Russia.
He confirmed that victims include 154 Dutch, 27 Australian, 23 Malaysians, eleven Indonesians, six from the UK, four German, four Belgian, three from Philippines and one Canadian citizen. Other nationalities have not been identified yet, but data is being verified. Gorter also said that their efforts were now focussing on supporting the relatives of the victims. President of the Schipohl group, Joe Nijhuis, and the Malaysian ambassador to the Netherlands, Fauziah Mohd, accompanied him at the press conference.
The aircraft was reportedly flying at an altitude of around 10,600 (34,700 feet) when ground control lost contact. It has not yet been confirmed how the plane was brought down.