A firefighter stands as flames burst amongst the wreckages of the Malaysian airliner carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine, on July 17, 2014.
There were 298 people, including 154 Dutch nationals, on board the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed in strife-torn eastern Ukraine, an official from the carrier has said.
"There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board the plane," Malaysian Airlines vice president Huib Gorter told reporters at a press conference at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport from where the doomed flight had taken off.
He gave a preliminary breakdown of the passenger's nationalities, saying: "154 were Dutch, 27 were Australian."
In addition, 23 others were from Malaysia, 11 were Indonesian, six were British, four were German, another four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines and one was Canadian.
Around 50 passengers remained unidentified, Gorter said.
Air traffic control lost contact with the Boeing 777-400 around 14:15 (local time) near the Russian-Ukrainian border, the Malaysia Airlines official said. (Also read:
Malaysia Says Jetliner Did Not Make Distress Call)
Flight MH17 took off from Schiphol shortly after noon and was supposed to land in Kuala Lumpur at around 06:10 am local time, Gorter said.
Malaysia Airlines will send a team to Ukraine today to help with the investigation. (Also read:
Malaysian Investigation Team on Way to Ukraine: PM Najib Razak)
Another airplane will also be made available to grieving relatives wanting to visit the crash site, Gorter said.
Questioned about the cause of the plane crash, Gorter said: "At this stage we are still looking at it from the viewpoint of being an accident." (Also read:
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Earlier, shocked and crying relatives were shielded from the press as they arrived at Schiphol to be taken to a special gathering area. (Also read:
Relatives of Passengers on Downed Malaysian Plane MH17 Berate Officials)
They were later escorted from the airport and taken by bus to an undetermined destination, Dutch news agency ANP reported.
The crash is the Netherlands' second-largest air disaster to date.
The country's largest disaster happened in March 1977 when 238 Dutch citizens died in Tenerife when two Boeing 747s crashed with the loss of 582 lives.