On Thursday, July 17th, Malaysia Airlines flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was lost over the Russia/Ukraine border. The Boeing 777-200, said to registered as 9M-MRD, departed from Amsterdam at 12:30PM CEST and was scheduled to arrive at 5:59AM MYT (per FlightAware) in Kuala Lumpur. The aircraft lost radar contact somewhere over Russia or the Ukraine border. At this time, minimal details are available. We will continue to update this timeline as new information comes in.
7/17/14 (12:15 PM EST): Currently, the only official details available are that radar contact was lost while the aircraft was flying at cruising altitude somewhere over the Russian/Ukraine border.
7/17/14 (4:00 PM EST): Local journalists, sources, and authorities say that wreckage has been found over a “10 mile debris field” from the crashed Malaysian 777-200. All major European, Asian, and American airlines have terminated flight paths over the Ukraine. Also, President Obama has been briefed on the incident. There were 298 passengers and 15 crew members aboard.
7/17/14 (5:10 PM EST): Sources and U.S. officials say that Malaysian flight 17 was hit by a surface to air missile. It is unclear as to who shot the missile at this time. We also have information on the nationalities of 259 of the 280 aboard. The nationalities consist of 154 Dutch, 27 Australian, 45 Malaysian, 12 Indonesian, 9 British, 4 German, 4 Belgian, 3 Filipino, and 1 Canadian.
7/18/14 (4:40 PM): President Obama says that there was at least one United States citizen aboard Malaysia Airlines flight 17. We also have confirmation of one New Zealander that was aboard. Malaysia Airlines confirmed that the airliner flew at 33,000 feet when it was shot down. For optimum safety, the aircraft should have been flying at 35,000 feet. The aircraft was also carrying a significant amount of cargo. The cargo manifests can be viewed via these links:
