Malaysian Plane Crash details create social media wildfire

Starting with a Malaysia Airline Tweet at 10:36 CST today, the world quickly became aware of a problem with Flight MH17 over Ukranian airspace. This civilian flight originated in Amsterdam and was headed to Kuala Lumpur. The Ukranian presidency has confirmed the crash officially.

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The BBC's resident defense expert has called it "unlikely" that this plane was downed by a Manpad – aka portable air defense missile – due to its reported altitude. Instead, this same expert suggests that, if the plane were downed by a missile, "the only other possibility" is that this flight was taken out by "a fighter carrying air-to-air missiles."

According to the Associated Press, Anton Herashchenko (adviser to Ukraine's interior minister) suggested that the plane had been hit by a missile.

The same AP release reports that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000m (33,000ft). Contact was lost at 13:20 GMT, the plane having left Amsterdam at 10:30 GMT.

NOTE: Above you'll see an image of a plane with the same model and branding as Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. This is a Boeing 777-200ER with a crew of 15 and passenger capacity of 280.

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If you're wondering how similar this flight's circumstance is to the lost flight earlier this year – it's likely due to completely different circumstances. Though both flights were Malaysian airliners, no evidence points to MH370 (the missing plane) having been shot down.

UPDATE 11:45 AM CST: Again according to the BBC, Ukranian military has denied shooting down the plane while they blame "pro-Russian rebels."

UPDATE 11:48 AM CST: Pro-Russian separatist Twitter account @novorossiya suggests that the Ukranian Air Force took the Malaysia Aircraft down.

UPDATE 11:49 AM CST: Ukranian @MatevzNovak has provided several photos of debris that he suggests come from the plane. He suggests some photos are taken by one Nadezhda Chernetskaya.

UPDATE 11:55 AM CST: Another image from @MOR2537 hailing from Donetsk in the Ukrain, apparently very near where at least one part of the plane fell.

UPDATE NOON CST: Russia's Rossiya TV has pro-Russian separatist spokesperson Sergey Kavtaradze speaking up on the situation: "The portable air defence systems which we have, they work at a maximum of three to four thousand metres. Therefore, it is possible to say virtually before the start of the investigation that the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed this."

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UPDATE 12:47 PM CST: Reuters reports that the number of lost lives number more than 300. This is according to the Interior Ministry, quoted by Interfax.

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