Signal of the reportedly crashed Malaysian flight was lost at 15:21 Dutch time (1321 GMT), Dutch media NOS reported Thursday with data from professional website Flightradar24.

The flight, which took off from Amsterdam heading to Kuala Lumpur, was reported crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border.

According to national broadcaster NOS, the plane was a combined co-share flight of Malaysia Airlines and KLM on its way to Kuala Lumpur. Passengers may have booked through one of the two carriers. It had KLM flight number KL4103 and Malaysia Airlines number MH17.

The Boeing 777 had 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board.

Dutch press agency ANP noted that the plane could have carried 19 people of Dutch travel agency D-reizen.

According to earelier reports by Interfax news agency, quoting an aviation source, the aircraft "started descending 50 kilometers before entering Russian airspace, and was subsequently found burning on the ground in Ukrainian territory."

The plane disappeared from radar at 10,000 meters and then crashed near the city of Shakhtarsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region, it said, citing Ukrainian law enforcement authorities.