Malaysia Airlines says MH17 has clean maintenance record

Malaysia Airlines said Friday that the B777-200 aircraft bearing registration no. 9M-MRD that operated MH17 on July 17, 2014, had a clean maintenance record.

It said the maintenance was conducted at the company's hangar at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), and the aircraft had a clean bill of health. "The aircraft was manufactured in July 1997, and so had 17 years in service," the company said, adding that the aircraft had recorded 75,322 hours with a total of 11,434 cycles.

According to the statement, all the communication systems on the plane were functioning normally, and the B777-200 used the Rolls-Royce Trent-800 engine and had a 282 seat capacity.

Malaysian Flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, with 295 people onboard feared dead.