Malaysia Airline Retires MH17 Flight Number

Malaysia Airline says it is retiring the flight number of the plane that was shot down over Ukraine.

The carrier said in a statement Sunday that beginning Friday, it will no longer use MH17 to identify any of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flights. It said it is doing so "out of respect for our crew and passengers" who were aboard the plane.

The airline said the new flight number replacing MH17 would be MH19.

It also said there would be no changes to the frequency of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur service, and that it would continue to operate daily flights between the cities.

Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday with 298 people onboard.