AKIPRESS.COM - Nearly 300 people died when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 crashed in eastern Ukraine Thursday, an advisor to the Ukrainain Interior Minister said, reports RIA Novosti.

"It was flying at the altitude of 10,000 meters. 280 passengers and 15 crew members died," Anton Herashchenko said in a Facebook post.

Witnesses from the town of Torez in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine told RIA Novosti that the plane wreckage and dead bodies have been found in the area.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed Thursday it had lost contact with a Boeing-777/200 aircraft en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was in the Ukrainian airspace, following a confirmation from the Ukrainian authorities of the plane crash north of the town of Torez.

Both the Ukrainian authorities and Malaysia Airlines are currently investigating the matter.