Debris of the Boeing 777, Malaysia Arilines flight MH17, which crashed during flying over the eastern Ukraine region near Donetsk, Ukraine, 17 July: photo - EPA/ALYONA ZYKINA EPA/ALYONA ZYKINA
“On behalf of the Polish nation I wish to give sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy. The circumstances of the crash require an explanation as soon as possible,” Bronislaw Komorowski said on Thursday night.
Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko has said that the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was brought down by “an act of terrorism” though pro-Russian separatists have denied shooting it down.
photo - EPA/ALYONA ZYKINA
US Vice-President Joe Biden said he believed the incident was not an accident, with the plane "blown out of the sky" around 500 kilometres from Ukrainian capital Kiev and just about to enter Russian airspace.
Malaysia Airlines has listed the nationalities on board the plane, which included 154 Dutch, 43 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 9 Britons, 4 Germans, 4 Belgians, 3 Filipinos, 1 Canadian, and 41 people of unverified nationalities.
Polish foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski has tweeted that at the current time it is believed that no Poles were on board, “although we are still in the process of verification,” he said.
Video of the incident, which has emerged online, shows black smoke rising after the aircraft hit the ground with debris still falling from the sky, suggesting the plane broke up before hitting the ground.
An eye witness said he heard what sounded like gun fire before the crash.
Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk said that “ I would like to express my sympathy and solidarity with the families of the victims of the disaster”.
“All indications point to the plane being shot down by ground-to-air missiles,” Polish government spokeswoman Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska told Polish Radio on Friday morning, though she did not rule out that the plane crash was simply a tragic accident.
Two Ukrainian military planes have been shot down in the region over the last few days, though pro-Russian separatists have claimed that they do not have weaponry capable of shooting down a commercial aircraft.
The Ukrainian government has said that since the rebels do not use aircraft they would not have fired at a plane in the area. (pg)
source: IAR/PAP/Reuters