Nationalities of Malaysia Airlines victims revealed
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The nationalities of those killed in the Malaysia airlines crash yesterday have been released.
The majority of those onboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were from the Netherlands, a total of 173.
Forty-four were Malaysian, 27 from Australia and 12 from Indonesia, according to the BBC.
Nine people from the UK were also on the aircraft as were four Germans, four Belgians, three from the Philippines, a Canadian and one person from New Zealand.
Malaysia Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai held a press conference this morning, saying Malaysia has sent a disaster team of 62 people to the Ukraine.
He said the Malaysia Airlines aircraft was operating through an approved route as 15 of 16 Asia Pacific carriers have been doing so.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) put an order on flying over parts of Ukraine three months ago, but this applies mainly to Crimea and the area immediately north, which are all south of where the Malaysia Airlines aircraft crashed yesterday, killing all those onboard.
Flight data shown by the NY Times here from last week indicates some carriers such as British Airways and Air France avoided flying over Ukraine, while many including Lufthansa, THAI Airways and KLM continued to do so.
In a statement released this morning Malaysia Airlines said all its European to Asia flights will now not fly through Ukraine airspace. It also confirmed a distress call was not released by the aircraft.
The airline’s statement said: “Our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilise its full support to provide all possible care to the next-of-kin. Malaysia Airlines is deploying its “Go Team” to Amsterdam with a group of caregivers and volunteers to assist the family members of the passengers.”
The carrier also used the update to share the Boeing 777’s safety record: “The B777-200 aircraft bearing registration no. 9M-MRD that operated MH17 on 17 July, 2014 had a clean maintenance record. The aircraft’s last maintenance check was on 11 July 2014. The next check was due on 27 Aug 2014. The maintenance was conducted at Malaysia Airlines’ hangar at KLIA. The aircraft had a clean bill of health.”
Malaysia Airlines’ senior vice president Huib Gorter said the airline is currently focusing its attention on the families of victims.
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