Vladimir Putin is facing a multimillion-dollar legal action for his alleged role in the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine.

A senior executive at troubled Malaysia Airlines has called for the creation of a new organisation to decide which flight paths are safe.

France says there are no survivors from the Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali and several families have been been wiped out in the tragedy.

Dizzying aerial shots of wide, sweeping landscapes used to be the exclusive domain of big-budget film productions with a helicopter, but not any more.

Aviation authorities are writing new rules on drones prompted by fears about safety in the skies, and privacy concerns.

This year is the deadliest for air disasters since 2010, but Kiwi aviation experts say passengers are still statistically unlikely to die in an aircraft crash.

Malaysia Airlines' website has gone dark. In keeping with airline practice after a crash, its special "dark site" is free of logos and the imagery of its standard home page.

The Perth-based parents of a woman believed to be an MH17 crash victim are on their way to the Ukrainian crash site, still believing she's alive.

After two tragic incidents within months involving Malaysia Airlines, hundreds of Kiwis have gained refunds for flights with the company.

In the agonising quest to pin down exactly what happened when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down over Ukraine last week, Web archivists and other digital sleuths are playing an unusual — potentially pivotal — role.

Ukraine’s security services has released photographs and videos it says show Russian-made BUK-M1 surface-to-air missile systems inside the rebel-held area.

An international sports team due to fly to France on Malaysia Airlines is changing carriers because the players fear for their safety after the MH17 tragedy.

Malaysia Airlines has told New Zealand travel agents its government owner is committed to ensuring its long-term future as the national carrier.

A call by the chief of Emirates for a global summit of carriers to tackle new threats to planes has been met with a muted response from the body representing airlines.

A woman who died in a mid-air collision had noticed flaws in the aviation industry and was trying to make changes, according to her father.

The Dutch military plane that will transport the bodies of those who died on MH17 has landed in the Ukraine city of Kharkiv.

Australian officials are set to start the grim task of identifying the victims of the MH17 crash, backed by a UN Security Council resolution endorsing full international co-operation.

Auckland psychologist Grant Amos believes the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in March proved more troubling to nervous passengers.

A source has told the Herald the latest disaster to strike Malaysia Airlines has left some crew too scared to fly.

Malaysia Airlines shares halted their dramatic slide yesterday but speculation about the airline's future grew.

Families of MH17 victims have urgently cancelled their loved ones' credit cards and mobile phones amid reports of looting at the crash site.

Australia continued to spearhead international demands yesterday for Russian-backed rebels to allow unrestricted access to the MH17 crash site.

European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels today, facing the challenge of proving Russia's role in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

A train is the makeshift morgue housing nearly 200 bodies collected from the crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

Disbelief at the killing of 298 civilians as they travelled peacefully through the skies above Ukraine is prompting many people to react with anger.

Four days after Malaysia Airlines' Flight 17 was shot down, the families of the 298 people on board can only wonder what is happening to the remains of their loved ones.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has started the sensitive task of contacting the families of the 37 Australian citizens and residents killed in the MH17 disaster.

The father of three Australian children killed on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has taken indefinite leave from his job as head of Buxton Resources.

A New Zealand diplomat from Moscow has been sent to Kiev to monitor an investigation into the Malaysia Air disaster, Prime Minister John Key says.