6:07
Amid the tragedy were unbelievable twists of fate. Sarah Moonen said her brother and a friend were bumped from the flight at the last minute, but two of their friends boarded the jetliner.
\"I felt bad for feeling good that my family hadn't been ruined and that my brother was alive,\" Moonen said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/AP_Schipol_Airport_Reaction_03_MT_140717_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Members of the tight knit HIV/AIDS community are mourning the loss of roughly 100 HIV/AIDS researchers, who were killed en route to the International Aids Society conference in Melbourne, Australia.
The World Health Organization announced on its Twitter account that spokesman Glenn Thomas was on board the jetliner.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/gty_ukraine_plane_crash_wreckage_man_2_jc_140717_4x3t_384.jpg\")
A statement from the Foreign Ministry in Kiev just hours after the incident claimed the plane had been \"shot down.\"
\"According to the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces, the airplane was shot down by the Russian Buk missile system as the liner was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters [33,000 feet],\" the statement read. \"Ukraine has no long-range air defense missile systems in this area. The plane was shot down, because the Russian air defense systems was affording protection to Russian mercenaries and terrorists in this area. Ukraine will present the evidence of Russian military involvement into the Boeing crash.\"
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko later added, \"We are not calling it an accident, or a disaster, but an act of terrorism.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/gty_ukraine_crash_family_react_02_jc_140717_4x3t_384.jpg\")
A Kremlin statement said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had opened a meeting with his economic advisers by calling for a moment of silence over the incident.
\"This tragedy would not have happened if there were peace on this land, if the military actions had not been renewed in southeast Ukraine,\" he said. \"And, certainly, the state over whose territory this occurred bears responsibility for this awful tragedy.\"
This is the second Malaysia Airlines plane to be involved in an air tragedy this year. On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished with 239 people on board after it took off from Kuala Lampur bound for Beijing. Malaysian officials said the plane disappeared somewhere in the Southern Indian Ocean, but no wreckage has been recovered.
Alyssa Newcomb, Dan Good and Anthony Castellano contributed to this report.Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. 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