Taiwanese airlines have changed their air routes after a missile downed a Malaysian Airline plane that crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. The Boeing 777 had 298 people on board. The plane was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. A Ukrainian official said it was flying at about 10,000 meters when the missile hit.
Transportation minister Yeh Kuang-shih said that Taiwan’s Eva Air changed its route to avoid flying over Ukraine. Taiwan-based China Airlines had changed their path in April. Other international airlines have also made the same adjustment.
Aviation official Jean Shen said that nations around the world are having airlines change their routes. Malaysia Airlines will avoid its usual route over eastern Ukraine.
The foreign ministry says that it is keeping a close watch on news of the situation. There were no Taiwanese known to be on the plane.
The 15 crew members on the Malaysia Airlines flight were Malaysian. Malaysia Airlines listed the known nationalities of many of the passengers: 154 were Dutch, 27 were Australians, 28 were Malaysians, 12 were Indonesian, 9 were from the UK, 4 were German; 4 were from Belgium, 3 were from the Philippines and one was Canadian. Authorities are still trying to determine the nationalities of about 40 passengers.