777 Malaysia Airlines flight crashes in Ukraine

July 17 2014(CNN)  A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed -- and was possibly shot down -- in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. The plane had 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board, read a Facebook post from Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. The Boeing 777 was "shot down" over Ukraine by "terrorists" operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system, the post said. The plane was shot down near the town on Torez in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to the post, as it flew at about 10,000 meters (32,000 feet).

"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said, according to his website. Details of the incident are quickly pouring in during the same week that Ukrainian officials said a Russian fighter shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane while the aircraft was in in Ukrainian airspace. Malaysia Airlines has confirmed that it lost contact with Flight 17 and that the jet's last known position was over Ukrainian airspace, the airline said on Twitter. Reacting to the breaking story, CNN's Richard Quest, an aviation expert, said that it would "extremely unusual" for an airliner at 32,000 feet to be shot down. From the ground, one could simply look up and tell whether a plane was a commercial aircraft.

"It looks like a commercial aircraft, it squawks a commercial aircraft. So something is absolutely appalling that's gone on here," he said. FlightRadar24 showed the plane disappearing near Kremenchuk (100 km. south from Poltava), Ukraine.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak tweeted that an investigation will be launched immediately. "I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed," he posted. And Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk ordered that a government commission investigate the crash, a statement from his office said. Russian President Vladimir Putin "expressed deep condolences" to Malaysia's Prime Minister over the crash, a post Thursday on the Kremlin's website said. He "asked to pass the most sincere word of condolences and support to families and relatives of (the crash) victims," the post said. President Obama has directed his staff to be in touch with senior Ukrainian officials, Earnest said.

People inspect a piece of wreckage beleived to be from Malasia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine. This image was posted to Twitter.