What Happened To Malaysia Airlines? Celebrity Reaction To MH17 Ukraine Crash

As news spread of the devastating crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Twitter lit up with tens of thousands of comments, including dozens from celebrities expressing condolences and shock over the tragedy that has left 295 presumed dead.

“Orange Is the New Black” star Jason Biggs tweeted a joke that backfired.

The crash is the second Malaysia Airlines flight to go down in less than six months, following the early March disappearance of Flight MH370 over the South China Sea with some 240 on board. Its whereabouts are still unknown. With the reports that MH17 was shot down by a missile, some are now suggesting MH370 might have suffered the same fate, the Mirror said.

As a result of the crash and its still-unknown circumstances, several airlines have rerouted their flights to avoid flying over eastern Russia. As of Thursday afternoon, the official cause of the crash had not been determined.

U.S. President Barack Obama briefly spoke on the matter at an event in Delaware, saying the United States "will offer any assistance we can to determine what happened and why."

"Looks like it may be a terrible tragedy. Right now we're working to determine whether there were American citizens on board. That is our first priority," Obama said, according to the Huffington Post. Shortly after his speech, reports came out that 23 Americans were on the doomed flight.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella