By now you should have heard of the terrible tragedy of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. According to Reuters, a U.S. official said that the U.S. believes it was a surface-to-air missile that brought down the passenger plane, killing all 295 people on board.

Ukraine accused "terrorists" - militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia - of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with a heavy Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile as the plane flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement.

"A Malaysian aircraft traveling from Western Europe to Kuala Lumpur … was apparently shot down," Biden said, telling the crowd he wanted to emphasize the information was based off of initial reports.

"Not an accident. Blown out of the sky," he said.

Here's the number of passengers and crew according to nationality are as follows:

Netherlands 154

Malaysia 43 (including 15 crew & 2 infants)

Australia 27

Indonesia 12 (including 1 infant)

United Kingdom 9

Germany 4

Belgium 4

Philippines 3

Canada 1

Unverified 41

Total 298

Others are reporting that planes are avoiding Ukrainian airspace.



A very sad day for Malaysia:



ABC's Moscow correspondent Kiri Radia relays a statement from Ukraine's foreign ministry:


Watch the video coverage below:

Latest update:

Malaysia Airlines has immediately changed the routes of its European flights to avoid the region.

"With immediate effect, all European flights operated by Malaysia Airlines will be taking alternative routes avoiding the usual route," said a statement from the airline.

As to why they were flying near a warzone:

"The usual flight route was earlier declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. International Air Transportation Association has stated that the airspace the aircraft was traversing was not subject to restrictions."