Air India flight was just 25 kms away when missile hit the Malaysian plane

New Delhi: It was a close shave for Air India flight AI113 (B787) which was merely 25 kilometers away from the ill fated Malaysian airline MH17 when it was shot down at the Ukrainian-Russian border. So far, there have been no reports of any Indians on board the flight.

The Ministry of External Affairs is in touch with Malaysian airlines headquarters through the Indian mission in Kuala Lampur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the families of the 298 passengers who lost their lives in the mishap.

Singapore Airlines SQ351 (B777) was also close behind the Malaysian airline MH17 when it disappeared.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian PM has said that the plane had never made a distress call. It was flying at a height of nearly 33,000 feet when it lost contact with the ATC.

All 298 people on board the plane were killed on Thursday after the jet was shot down by "terrorists" over war-torn eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. The incident comes nearly four months after the mysterious disappearance of MH370 in the Indian Ocean.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it received notification from Ukrainian Air Traffic Control that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 at 1415 GMT (8:45 IST) at 30 km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50 km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

"The aircraft was shot down over Ukraine by terrorists operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system," an advisor to the Ukrainain Interior Minister, Anton Herashchenko, said.

23 Americans, 9 Britons and 71 Dutch nationals were among passengers. Burning aircraft wreckage and bodies strewn on the ground were seen at the village of Grabovo, some 40 kms from the Russian border in an area where pro-Russian rebels are active. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the jetliner may have been shot down over his country's airspace.

"This incident is not a catastrophe. It is a terrorist act," he said. Ukrainian officials have accused pro-Russian rebels of being responsible for shooting down the plane. But the press service of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic claimed the jet was downed by a missile fired from a Ukrainian air force Su-25 combat jet, a charge denied by Ukraine.

"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," Poroshenko said in a statement posted on the president's website.

The plane could have been brought down by a ground-to-air missile, sources said. "I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on his Twitter feed. "We are launching an immediate investigation," he said as he rushed to the Kuala Lumpur airport.

Workers at the crash site were trying to find the black box. Some media reports said pro-Russian separatists claimed to have found the flight recorders. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk also ordered a probe into accident. A number of Ukrainian military planes have been shot down by missiles in recent weeks.

Ukraine has accused Russia's military of supplying advanced missiles to the rebels, the BBC reported. Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian officials blamed the Russian air force for shooting down one of its ground attack jets on Wednesday.

Tensions have been high between Ukraine and Russia since street protests forced former pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine's southeastern Crimea region and a pro-Russia separatist rebellion has been raging in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Ukrainian forces have been struggling to quell the separatist unrest. Ukraine's government has accused Russia of allowing weapons and military equipment, including tanks, to cross the border illegally into the hands of pro-Russia separatists.

US President Barack Obama described the incident as a "terrible tragedy". He said US officials were trying to establish if any Americans were on board. Russian President Vladimir Putin "expressed deep condolences" to Malaysia's Prime Minister over the crash, a post Thursday on the Kremlin's website said.

Several airlines, including Air India, Jet Airways Lufthansa and Air France, say they will now avoid eastern Ukrainian airspace.