One Canadian among dead on downed Malaysian plane

A picture taken on July 17, 2014 shows the wreckages of the malaysian airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine. Pro-Russian rebels fighting central Kiev authorities claimed on Thursday that the Malaysian airline that crashed in Ukraine had been shot down by a Ukrainian jet. The head of Ukraine's air traffic control agency said Thursday that the crew of the Malaysia Airlines jet that crashed in the separatist east had reported no problems during flight. Photo: DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — At least one Canadian was among the 298 people aboard a passenger plane that was downed Thursday over Ukraine, an official with Malaysia Airlines said.

Huib Gorter, the airline’s senior vice-president, says 154 people were Dutch, 27 were Australians, 23 were Malaysians, 11 were Indonesian, six were from the United Kingdom, four were from Germany, four were from Belgium, and three were from the Philippines.

Gorter says authorities are still trying to determine the nationalities of the rest of the passengers. The airline initially reported that 295 people were on board but later updated the figure to include three infants.

A spokesman for Lynne Yelich, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, says Ottawa is aware of at least one Canadian citizen among the victims.

But Saro Khatchadourian said no details would be released to respect the privacy of the family.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement expressing shock and sadness about the destruction of the plane and said Canada was willing to assist authorities in determining the cause of the crash.

Malaysia’s prime minister says the jetliner did not make any distress call before it went down in eastern Ukraine.

Najib Razak also says the flight route had been declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

This was the second tragedy to hit Malaysia Airlines this year. Its Flight 370 disappeared March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.