MH17 crash: Airlines divert flights from eastern Ukraine (original) (raw)

European flight safety body Eurocontrol says Ukrainian authorities have closed the airspace in the east of the country to all airline flights.

It said all flight plans that use routes in the area are being rejected.

It follows the crash of Malaysian airliner flight MH17 with 298 people on board, amid claims it was shot down.

Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region, a Department for Transport spokesperson said.

However, some airlines in the last week including British Airways and Air France had already altered their flight paths to avoid Ukraine.

British Airways said its flights did not use Ukrainian airspace, with the exception of a once-a-day service between Heathrow and Kiev.

A spokesman for BA said they were keeping those services under review, but that "Kiev is several hundred kilometres from the incident site".

Flight MH17 was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it came down near the village of Grabovo.