PREMIER Mike Baird says at least three of those lost in the Malaysia Airlines MH17 incident were from NSW.
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“Tonight I have received the tragic news that there are now at least three confirmed passengers from NSW who were on the Malaysia Airlines flight," Mr Baird said about 8pm on Friday.
Mr Baird said any Australians' death resonated but there was an extra blow "where they were our neighbours, our friends, the people who helped build and nurture our communities".
“As the Prime Minister said today, it appears that our fellow Australians have been the victims of an unspeakable crime," Mr Baird said.
“If that is the case, we must do everything we can to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
London: A Malaysia Airlines plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has been shot down in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine, claiming the lives of 295 passengers and crew. Dutch authorities have said 27 Australians were on board.
The tragedy represents a serious escalation of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and comes only months after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was investigating "a number" of Australians aboard the Boeing 777 and could confirm only 23.
“We are sad to say that the Dutch authorities have advised 27 Australians were on board MH17," DFAT said in a statement.
"The department is urgently seeking to confirm this number and the identities of the Australians involved.
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"If you have any concerns for the welfare of Australian family or friends, you should attempt to directly contact them," the department said.
DFAT urged family members unable to contact next of kin to call its 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 61 2 6261 3305 from overseas. Within Australia, the number is 1300 555 135.
There were also reports of nine British passengers aboard the flight that carried a crew of 15. Bodies and burning wreckage were scattered over the countryside near Donetsk.
Missile strike
US intelligence officials confirmed to American media that a surface-to-air missile brought down the airline. However, which side used the missile was less clear, officials said. A radar system reportedly saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft just before the plane went down.
Another system saw a heat signature when the airliner was hit in the air. Experts were tracing the missile's trajectory to work out whether it was launched from Ukraine or Russian territory.
The International Air Transportation Association said that the airspace the aircraft was traveling through was not subject to restrictions, according to the Malaysian PM's office.
Malaysia Airlines said MH17 did not make a distress call.
Condemnations
The United States Vice President Joe Biden has said the Malaysian Airlines aircraft that crashed over Ukraine was “apparently” shot down.
While stressing that the US did not have all the details, Mr Biden described the plane as, "Shot down, not an accident. Blown out of the sky.”
Eastern Ukraine has been roiled for months by a violent pro-Russian separatist uprising in which a number of military aircraft have been downed. The geopolitical tussle has plunged relations between the US and Russia to their lowest level since the Cold War.
This would be the first commercial airline disaster to result from the hostilities. Despite the turmoil in eastern Ukraine, the commercial airspace over that part of the country is a heavily trafficked route and has remained open.
Russian president Vladimir Putin put the blame for the crash squarely on Ukraine's government.
"I want to point out that this tragedy wouldn't have happened if there was peace in this land, or at least if fighting hadn't resumed in the southeast of Ukraine," Mr Putin said. "And undoubtedly, the state on whose territory this happened is responsible for this awful tragedy."
Malaysia Airlines, still reeling from the mysterious loss of another Boeing 777 flight in March, confirmed that Ukrainian air traffic control lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT), approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
Flight MH17 operated on a Boeing 777 left Amsterdam at 12.15pm (Amsterdam local time) and was estimated to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10 am (Malaysia local time) the next day.
Malaysia's response
Prime Minister of Malaysia, familiar with the glare of scrutiny following the missing MH370 flight saga, conveyed sympathy and support to family and friends of the victims.
"At this early stage, however, Malaysia is unable to verify the cause of this tragedy," said PM Najib Razak in a statement.
"But we must – and we will – find out precisely what happened to this flight.
"No stone can be left unturned.
"If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice."
Black box
Russia-based Interfax reported that pro-Russian separatists claimed to have found the ‘black box’ flight recorders from the plane. Separatist leaders said they would send the plane’s flight recorders to Moscow for examination - something Mr Najib urged against.
"An international team must have full access to the crash site," said Mr Najib.
"And no one should interfere with the area, or move any debris, including the black box," he said.
An advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Anton Gerashenko, said the plane was "hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher”.
However Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, the insurgent group in eastern Ukraine, denied in a telephone interview that the rebels had anything to do with the loss of the passenger jet.
He said that the rebels had shot down Ukrainian planes before but that their anti-aircraft weapons could reach only to around 4000 metres, far below the cruising level of passenger jets.
"We don't have the technical ability to hit a plane at that height," he said. He said the plane apparently came down in an area of Ukrainian military operations and that it was not out of the question that the Ukrainians themselves shot it down.
According to an online flight tracking site, the plane's last known position was near Donetsk at an altitude of just over 10km.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Areseny Yatseniuk ordered an investigation into the "airplane catastrophe" in eastern Ukraine, his spokeswoman Olga Lappo said.
Ukraine's President, Petro Poroshenko, reportedly called it a “terrorist act”, saying two Ukraine warplanes had been shot down from Russian territory in recent days.
He said Ukraine's armed forces were not involved, and on behalf of the State expressed his "deepest and most sincere condolences to the families and relatives of those killed in this terrible tragedy."
"Poroshenko thinks this of the plane that was brought down: it is not an incident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act," his press secretary Svatoslav Tsegolko said.
"We are confident that those responsible for this tragedy will be brought to justice," he said.
Claims, counter claims
Within hours of the crash, Ukrainian media have reported blamed Russian-backed Cossack militants, publishing what the Kyiv Post said was the content of a phone call between members of Russian-backed militant groups, intercepted by Ukraine's security agency.
The phone call was made 20 minutes after the plane crash, the Kyiv Post reported, by Igor Bezler, military commander of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic.
He was said to be reporting to a Russian army colonel in their intelligence department.
In a transcript of the conversation Bezler says "We have just shot down a plane".
US President Barack Obama said it looked like a "terrible tragedy" and the US would offer any assistance it could to determine what happened and why.
His thoughts and prayers were with all those on board.
EU President Jose Barroso Tweeted that the crash was “truly shocking”.
“Facts need to be established immediately. My thoughts with families of victims,” he wrote.
The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, was flying back from Brussels to deal with the crisis.
With Reuters, New York Times, Nick O'Malley, Lindsay Murdoch
