No Indian casualties in Malaysian jet crash: Ashok Gajapathi Raju

Confirming that no Indian citizens were on board the Malaysian jet which was downed in Ukraine near the Russian border, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today said that India has alerted its own airlines to avoid Ukraine.

The Civil Aviation Minister termed the incident as unfortunate, but assured that no Indians were involved in the disaster.

He said, "There are conflict zones in many parts of the world, but this kind of technology that has been used, it's generally used by armed forces. Our citizens are our concern and India has alerted its own airlines and we are happy with the information we have got that no Indian citizen's life has been lost."

 

The minister also added that whenever any air route is finalized the countries involved are kept informed about it and most countries allow civilian aircrafts but not military ones.

A Malaysian airliner carrying 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border, cited the Russia's Interfax news agency report.

The plane was enroute to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, and it is being rumored that it was shot down. The Malaysian plane had fallen from a height of 10,600 metres and all passengers on board, including the crew died in the tragedy.

Parts of the aircraft, human remains, money, gadgets and passports were spread across the region of Grabovo and Rassypnaya in Eastern Ukaraine.

Security experts have stated that given the aircraft's altitude, the possible cause of the crash could be a surface-to-air missile attack.