12 Indonesians in MH17, including infant

JAKARTA, Indonesia ­(UPDATED) – A new statement from Malaysia Airlines said 12 Indonesians were among the passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, including one infant.

There were 298 people, including 154 Dutch nationals, on board the Malaysia Airlines flight that US officials said was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and crashed in strife-torn eastern Ukraine on Thursday, July 17.

Malaysia Airlines says it will release the passenger manifest after it has notified the next of kin of the victims.

We are in the process of notifying #MH17 next-of-kin. Once all have been notified, the passenger’s manifest will be released.

— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) July 18, 2014

“There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board the plane,” Huib Gorter told reporters at a press conference at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport from where the doomed flight had taken off.

He gave a preliminary breakdown of the passenger’s nationalities, saying: “154 were Dutch, 27 were Australian.” In addition to the 12 Indonesians, 43 others were from Malaysia incuding 2 infants, 3 were Filipinos, 9 were British, 4 were German, another 4 were from Belgium and 1 was Canadian.

The remaining 41 passengers remained unidentified.

Indonesian presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told Detik President Susilo Bambang Yudhonoyo will give a press conference at 11am, Jakarta time, regarding the incident. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said in a statement they have instructed the Indonesian ambassadors to the Netherlands and Malaysia to confirm the presence of Indonesian citizens on board the plane.

“Indonesia is also in very deep sorrow over this tragedy. The president will issue an official statement this afternoon,” Marty said in a statement sent out to journalists at 5:44am. 

Took off from Schiphol

Air traffic control lost contact with the Boeing 777-400 around 14:15 (12:15 GMT) near the Russian-Ukrainian border, the Malaysia Airlines official said.

Flight MH17 took off from Schiphol shortly after noon and was supposed to land in Kuala Lumpur at around 06:10 am local time, Gorter said.

Another airplane will be made available to grieving relatives wanting to visit the crash site, Gorter said.

Questioned about the cause of the plane crash, Gorter said: “At this stage we are still looking at it from the viewpoint of being an accident.”

Netherlands’ 2nd largest air disaster

Earlier, shocked and crying relatives were shielded from the press as they arrived at Schiphol to be taken to a special gathering area.

They were later escorted from the airport and taken by bus to an undetermined destination, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

The crash is the Netherlands’ second-largest air disaster to date.

The country’s largest disaster happened in March 1977 when 238 Dutch citizens died in Tenerife when two Boeing 747s crashed with the loss of 582 lives.

In Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Najib Razak urged Ukraine to create humanitarian corridor to access crash site. A Malaysian investigation team has left for Ukraine. (READ: Malaysian PM shocked at reports plane may have been shot) – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com