A spokesman from The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was working to identify any British victims of the tragedy. “We are aware of the reports and are urgently working to establish what has happened," he said.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Friday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner did not make any distress call, adding that its flight route had been declared safe by the global civil aviation body. He added investigators "will leave no stone unturned".
While the cause of the crash has not been determined, US Vice President Joe Biden cautiously suggested the crash was "not an accident" and that the jet had "apparently blown out of the sky", while a US official said that, while its origin was unclear, a surface-to-air missile was probably responsible.