MH17 crash: Previous incidents involving downed civilian aircraft

PARIS:  In the wake of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy, here are some previous cases over the past four decades of downed civilian aircraft:

- October 4, 2001: 78 people, mostly Israelis, were killed when their Russian Sibir Tupolev-154, flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, exploded in mid-flight over the Black Sea. The crash happened less than 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the Crimean coast. A week later Kiev admitted that the disaster was due to the accidental firing of a Ukrainian missile.