Update 12.47am: Malaysia Airlines has confirmed on Facebook they lost contact with flight MH17.

Update 12.37am: A piece of debris allegedly from MH17 taken by eyewinesses (Source: RT Twitter)

Update 12.30am: Not verified: Passport of 61-year-old Dutch citizen Jolette Nuesink found near alleged MH17 crash site.

Update 12.21am: BBC: Military experts say that to down a plane 10km in the sky would take a missle guided by a radar or a fighter jet.

Update 12.14am: The plane was reportedly shot down by a surface-to-air missile called a BUK.

From The Telegraph via Colin Freeman: The BUK is a self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile systems in the Soviet era and designed to engage cruise missiles, smart bombs, aircraf and and unmanned aerial vehicles. Modern versions can reach up to 80,000 feet.

Update 12.09am: Other planes reportedly taking evasive action to avoid eastern Ukrainian airspace.

Update 12.02pm: Malaysia Airlines has confirmed via Twitter they lost contact with the plane

Update 12.00am: The flight path of MH17

Update 11.47pm: The Malaysia Airlines plane is supposedly MH17.

Update 11.43pm: Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser says 280 passengers, 15 crew dead in Malaysian airliner crash: Interfax (Source: Reuters Twitter)

Malaysia Airlines, ministry of transport say have no information about any airliner that may have crashed (Source: Reuters Twitter)

Original report 11.34pm: Reports from newswire Reuters and publication The Telegraph have reported that a Malaysian Airlines Boeing aircraft flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur "began to descend about 50km before entering Russian airspace, and was subsequently found burning on the ground in Ukraine"