New Delhi, Jul 18 (HT): Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flight to Ukraine’s Donetsk from Germany was heading towards the same region where the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines passenger plane was shot down, according to a report in The Hindu.
Flight MH17, carrying 298 people, was hit by a surface-to-air missile in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. It crashed at Torez, near Shakhtersk, some 40 km from the Russian border in Ukraine after it was hit by a missile.
According to The Hindu, PM Modi's flight (Air India-001) took off from Frankfurt, Germany, at 1122 GMT and the Malaysian airliner went off the radar at 1320 GMT. Modi’s plane was en-route to Donetsk, which would be approximately three hours of flight time.
If Modi had travelled in the same path for another hour, he would have been on the same region as that of MH17, the report claimed.
The route was later changed after the news of the attack was communicated to Indian officials.
Modi was returning to India after attending the sixth BRICS Summit held in Brazil from July 14 to 16.
Modi condoled the loss of lives in the Malaysian airline tragedy.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives on board Flight MH17. We stand with them in this hour of grief," he said in a tweet on Friday.
Ukraine has, meanwhile, declared the skies over eastern part of the country as a no-fly zone.
The area has been a battleground for state forces and pro-Russia rebels for the past few months.
Air India flight was just 25 kms away when MH17 was shot down
According to Flightradar24, a real time flight tracking app, an Air India flight and a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 jet were just 25 km away from the Malaysian Airlines flight which was shot down in Ukraine on Thursday.
Sources said Air India's Flight 113 had departed from Delhi for Birmingham at 1.35pm on Thursday. The flight landed on time in Birmingham at 6pm (local time), which would be around 10.30pm India time.
"It was an uneventful flight. The crew wasn't aware of the MH17 incident till it landed in Birmingham," an AI official said.
"We will be following the flight safety directions issued in the aftermath of the tragic incident and will avoid the airspace over war-torn eastern Ukraine. Safety of passengers remains our topmost priority," he added.
Air India introduced the Amritsar-Delhi-Birmingham flight in August last year. The airline has deployed a Boeing 787 on the route. In June last year, it had introduced services on the Delhi-London route.