MH17: Malaysian PM demands perpetrators 'brought to justice'

"I would like to bring your attention to the fact that we are not calling it an accident or a disaster but an act of terrorism."

For the second time this year, Malaysia is reeling from the loss of a passenger plane in extraordinary circumstances.

MH-17 was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 people on board when it came down in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukranian President says it was an "act of terrorism" by separatists, but the rebels say they don't have the weapons capable of such an act.

Barbara Miller, Europe correspondent for radio Australia reports.

Chilling images of the crash site in eastern Ukraine suggest no-one can possibly have survived.

Large pieces of debris from a plane appear to be scattered in fields surrounding smouldering wreckage.

Huib Gorter is a senior vice-president of Malaysia Airlines.

“One hundred and fifty-four Dutch passengers were on board the aircraft, 27 Australian passengers, 23 Malaysian, 11 Indonesian, six from the UK, four from Germany, four from Belgium, three from the Philippines and one Canadian.”

Two hundred and eighty passengers and 15 crew members were on board MH17. The nationalities of some passengers are still being checked. All crew members were Malaysian.

The plane came down around 50 kilometres short of the Russian border with Ukraine.

Pro-Russian separatists hold the region and tensions between the rebels and Ukrainian authorities have been escalating in recent days.

Rebels say they shot down two Ukrainian jets this week.

So it wasn't long before the blame game began.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko:

“I just finished a conversation with the prime minister of the Netherlands. I offered our condolences on behalf of the Ukrainian people and invited Dutch experts to open an investigation of this act of terrorism. I would like to bring your attention to the fact that we are not calling it an accident or a disaster but an act of terrorism.”

The rebels have denied they had anything to do with loss of MH-17 and have been quick to issue a counter-accusation.

Alexander Borodai is the prime minister of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk.

“A passenger aircraft has been shot down indeed. Shot down by Ukrainian air forces. To tell the truth, this is a provocation on purpose.”

The Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

“We must and we will find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone will be left unturned. If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice.”

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• Radio Australia