Malaysia Air retiring shot down flight number

Malaysia Airlines is retiring the flight number of an airplane that was shot down over Ukraine last week. 

The company announced this week that its trips between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Amsterdam, Netherlands will no longer be known as flight 17.  

“We are retiring the MH17 flight number from 25 July out of respect for the crew and passengers,” the airline tweeted. 

{mosads}Malaysia Air’s flight 17 crashed last Thursday when it was allegedly shot down by Russian separatists in the disputed area of Ukraine. The plane, which was a Boeing 777, was carrying 295 people. 

Malaysia Airlines officials have said one of the passengers who on board the plane was a U.S. citizen. 

U.S. and Ukraine officials have accused Russian President Vladmir Putin of supplying the weapons that were used to shoot down the Malaysia airplane. 

The incident is the second catastrophe that has struck Malaysia Airlines this year. An earlier flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China went missing in March, and that airplane has still not been found. 

Malaysia previously retired the flight number of the missing plane, flight 370, as well.

U.S. State Department officials have confirmed that at least three of the passengers who were on board the plane were Americans.