On Thursday Malaysia Air flight MH17 took off on time from Amsterdam on it’s non-stop flight to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Many families were on board looking forward to an exciting vacation in East Asia. Malaysian tourists were returning from their vacation in Europe.

A team of AIDS experts, including a former president of the International AIDS Society, were among the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight shot down over Ukraine on Thursday, colleagues said. They were on their way to a major international AIDS meeting being held in Melbourne, Australia.

Among the passengers was former president of the International AIDS Society Joep Lange, a well-known HIV researcher from the Netherlands, Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten said in parliament. Also scheduled to have been aboard was Glenn Thomas, a genial British spokesman for the World Health Organization, according to WHO spokesperson Christy Feig.

More and more photos are coming in from the crash site in Eastern Ukraine. No comments necessary: