Live updates: Malaysian Flight MH17 shot down over Ukraine, 295 dead

A Malaysia Airlines passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, and both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the aircraft.

Obama said Friday the evidence so far indicates Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

Follow all the developments into the crash of Malaysian Flight MH17, below.

ARTICLES:

• Live updates from social media

• Photos

• Video

• Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 – what we know one day later

• Obama: Plane shot down by missile, 1 American dead

• IU student among dead in Malaysia plane crash

• Ukraine: 298 on Malaysian plane shot down over east

• McCain on plane crash: ‘There’s going to be hell to pay’

UPDATES:

//

Malaysian Airlines tweeted Thursday morning it had lost contact with Flight MH17 over Ukrainian airspace.

Boeing then confirmed it is gathering information about the flight on Twitter.

The White House also expressed its condolences.

And Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak tweeted he was launching an investigation.

VIDEO:

PHOTOS:

Images taken at the scene of the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 near Donetsk, Ukraine. Getty and AP images

People gather during a candle-light vigil for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on July 18, 2014. | Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

A woman crosses herself as people lay flowers and light candles in front of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kiev on July 18, 2014, to remember the passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur which crashed in eastern Ukraine. | Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images