Russia's Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines to avoid Ukraine airspace

MOSCOW/ISTANBUL/AMSTERDAM - Russia's state-controlled Aeroflot will no longer fly over Ukraine, an official at the airline said, following the crash of a Malaysian passenger airliner in eastern Ukraine.
Turkish Airlines said on Thursday all of its flights would avoid Ukrainian airspace after a Malaysian airliner crashed in the east of the country. 

"After the incident we have decided to avoid Ukrainian airspace," a Turkish Airlines spokesman said.

 

Meanwhile, the Dutch prime minister is on his way back to the Netherlands from a summit in Brussels after a Malaysia Airlines plane that took off from Amsterdam was downed in Ukraine, he said in a statement on Thursday.

 

"I am deeply shocked by the dramatic reports on the crash of of Malaysia Airlines MH17," he said, noting that he had been in touch with Ukraine's president. Tour operators have told local media they had booked dozens of Dutch citizens onto the flight.

 

"Much is still unclear about the facts, circumstances and the passengers," he said of the flight, which is listed on flight-tracking websites as sharing planes on some routes with Dutch national airline KLM.  — Reuters