(Correction:transponder was in good order)
MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – The Malaysian airliner that crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday did not deviate from its previously approved flight path while travelling above the violence-hit country, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Friday.
Media reports speculated that the disaster of the ill-fated plane was caused by change of its route and downing by a surface-to-air missile.
The minister said the problem was not in the route, as 15 or 16 other Asian airline companies used the same air path. He said the crashed plane's transponder, a device that sends and receives radio signals, was in good order.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the town of Torez in the Donetsk Region on Thursday, causing death of all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board.
On Friday, Ukraine closed the airspace above the Donetsk, Luhansk and part of Kharkiv regions and launched a special commission to investigate the crash. Ukraine’s state-run air traffic operator Ukraerorukh announced that leading international specialists would be engaged to clarify the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a full, transparent international investigation and said he was following closely every report on the accident together with the International Civil Aviation Organization.
