Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

Date: July 17, 2014

Fatalities: 298

A similar incident took place over eastern Ukraine when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down near the Russian border, likely by pro-Russian forces in control of the region during the War in Donbass between separatist insurgents and the Ukrainian government.

All 298 on board died when the plane crashed into a field near Torez. Some airlines had already begun to avoid Ukrainian airspace owing to the Crimean crisis that began early in 2014, with the International Civil Aviation Organisation warning of a risk to passenger jets in the area, but not all carriers had changed their routes.

In September 2016, Dutch prosecutors concluded that the missile used to shoot down the plane had been transported into eastern Ukraine from Russia, adding that the launch vehicle returned across the border a day after the crash. The conflict in the region is ongoing.