The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Thursday that it was believed that the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight has not traversed to restricted airspace.

IATA said in a brief statement that based on the information currently available it was believed that the airspace that the aircraft was traversing was not subject to restrictions.

A Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed Thursday in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, with all the 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board reportedly having been killed.

It was reported that the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, started descending 50 km before entering Russian airspace, and was subsequently found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory.

The plane reportedly disappeared from radar at an altitude of 10,000 meters and then crashed near the city of Shakhtarsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region.