On July 17, 2014, the Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines as Flight 17 from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was tragically shot down while flying over Donetsk, Ukraine killing all 298 (283 passengers and 15 crew members) persons on board. An explanation as to why the aircraft was flying over the dangerous airspace has not been provided, specifically why the airline decided to take the route over Ukraine which other airlines had purposefully avoided despite its economic advantage. Armed conflict was in progress in Ukraine and lower levels of airspace were restricted for commercial aircraft. While the aircraft was flying over Eastern Ukraine, a missile was fired directly at the aircraft despite the aircraft being above the restricted airspace. Due to the explosion of the missile, the aircraft broke apart and crashed.