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Crash Of Malaysian Plane In Ukraine Shocks Westport Workers

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- Fairfield County residents were shocked Thursday by the news of the crash of a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet in Ukraine near the Russian border. 

Fairfield resident and Westport lawyer Will Tennant was shocked and saddened by the second Malaysia Airlines flight to go down this year.

Fairfield resident and Westport lawyer Will Tennant was shocked and saddened by the second Malaysia Airlines flight to go down this year.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith

Most residents in Fairfield County didn't know what to think when asked about the flight that went down Thursday.

"I wondered if this was deja vu," said Melissa Norton of Fairfield. She said she heard about the missing flight after receiving several text alerts on her phone.

Fairfield resident and Westport lawyer, Will Tennant's first reaction was, "Poor Malaysia Airlines."

"It's obviously very tragic," Tennant said.

The concern from some was that the the tension between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists escalated and that the plane had been shot down, possibly by a Russian-made antiaircraft system, as the New York Time reported.

The area in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border has been marked by fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, according to the New York Times. Read the full story here on the crash from the New York Times.

According to reports, the Boeing 777 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 280 passengers and 15 crew on board. The State Department confirmed 23 Americans were on the flight. There were no survivors. 

This is the second Malaysian Airline flight to go down with no survivors this year. The missing Flight 370 vanished March 8 and no wreckage has yet to be found, even after exhaustive searches. 

"I have friends in Malaysia, and the first one hit them hard. So I can only imagine how hurt they might be right now," said Southport resident Rashad Nimr, who was in Westport. "It's just sad."

Thursday's downed Malaysia flight shares its tragedy with the 18th anniversary of the explosion of TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island.

The crash occurred July 17, 1996, at about 8:31 p.m., 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 230 people on board the flight to Paris and Rome were killed in the third-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. territory, according to Wikipedia.

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