一馬航客機在烏克蘭東部墜落

A passenger jet has reportedly crashed in eastern Ukraine in an area where separatist rebels have been engaging Ukrainian military forces in recent weeks.

The Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said 280 passengers and 15 crew were on board.

The Malaysia Airlines plane, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, apparently crashed near the town of Snizhe, according to a report from Interfax news agency which could not immediately be confirmed. Other reports suggested it had crashed close to the nearby town of Torez.

Malaysia Airlines said via its Twitter feed: "Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow."

A source in the Russian aviation industry told Reuters that the plane did not enter Russian airspace when expected and had crashed in eastern Ukraine.

Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, wrote on his Facebook page that the plane had crashed in Ukrainian territory after being hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. Associated Press said one of its journalists had seen a similar launcher near the town of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.

In recent days the Ukrainian air force has lost planes in the area after they have been shot down by rebels. Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine accused Russia of downing one of its fighter jets inside Ukrainian territory.

Sources among the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic said they were not linked to the downing of the plane and suspected Ukrainian forces of being involved, according to comments carried by Russian news agencies.

The report of the crash comes four months after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, two-thirds of them Chinese citizens. It has yet to be found despite a massive international search, which is still ongoing, but Malaysia Airlines has said it believes everyone on board died when the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

The cause of MH370's disappearance remains a mystery, with investigators suggesting the plane was deliberately diverted from its course, but there was no way of knowing whether the pilots were responding to an emergency or whether there was malicious intent.

That aircraft was a Boeing-777 – the same kind of plane as flight MH17.據英國《衛報》報道，有報道稱一架客機在烏克蘭東部地區墜毀。該地區是烏克蘭分裂叛亂分子在近幾周與烏克蘭軍隊交戰的地區。

烏克蘭官員的Anton Gerashchenko稱，機上有280名乘客和15名機組成員。

據俄羅斯文傳電訊社的報道，這架飛機屬於馬來西亞航空公司，從阿姆斯特丹飛行科倫坡，但墜落在Snizhe鎮附近。目前無法對此予以確認。另有報道稱，這架客機墜落的地點接近於Torez鎮附近。

馬來西亞航空通過推特稱：“馬來西亞與從阿姆斯特丹起飛的MH17航班推動聯絡。最後知道的位置是在烏克蘭領空。隨後將公佈更多信息。”

俄羅斯航空業的消息人士對路透社稱，這架飛機原本要進入俄羅斯領空，但並沒有，最後墜毀在烏克蘭東部。

烏克蘭內政部顧問Gerashchenk在其Facebook上寫道，馬航飛機遭到由Buk發射車發射的導彈擊中。美聯社稱其一位記者曾於17日早上在Snizhne鎮附近看到類似的導彈發射車。

據俄羅斯新聞機構的評論，自稱爲頓涅茨克人民共和國（Donetsk People's Republic）的消息人士稱，他們與馬航客機墜毀事件沒有關係，同時懷疑烏克蘭政府軍與此有關。

馬航這架飛機墜毀事件的四個月前，馬航的MH370航班載有239名乘客在從科倫坡飛往北京的途中失蹤。其中乘客中有三分之二是中國公民。儘管有大規模的國 際搜救工作並還在進行之中，目前仍然沒有找到這架飛機。不過，馬航曾表示其相信航班裏的所有人都在飛機墜入到南印度洋時遇難。

MH370的失蹤原因仍然是個謎，而調查人員稱飛機是有意偏離航道的，不過，無法知道飛行員是否對於緊急事件作出了反應或是帶有惡意爲之。

失蹤的飛機的機型爲波音777，與MH17航班的機型是一樣的。