'MH17 was shot down by Russian-made BUK missile from eastern Ukraine' - Dutch Safety Board

A report on the 15-month investigation into the commercial flight MH17's crash in Ukraine is presented to victims' families; Missile manufaturer contests findings

(File photo) Investigators sift through the wreckage of flight MH17 after it crashed in eastern Ukraine
(File photo) Investigators sift through the wreckage of flight MH17 after it crashed in eastern Ukraine

Shrapnel from a Russian-made missile was found in the bodies aboard flight MH17, which crashed in Ukraine last year. 

The Dutch Safety Board, headed by chairman Tjibbe Joustra, presented its findings to victims' relatives Gilze-Rijen military base in the Netherlands, following a 15-month investigation into how 298 people were killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down. The flight has left Amsterdam and was headed towards Kuala Lampur.

The DSB has made it clear that it would not, in today's conference, deal with 'blame and culpability' - that is for the Dutch prosecutor's office to determine.

Those killed in the crash included 283 passengers - of which 80 were children - and 15 crew members. The country mourning the biggest number of victims is the Netherlands, followed by Malaysia and Australia.

Preliminary findings presented in September 2014 said the plane was hit by "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft", fuelling speculation that a surface-to-air missile was responsible.

Investigators today told family members that MH17 was hit by a BUK missile and that victims are unlikely to have suffered. The cockpit was struck first, causing that section to break away from the main body of the aircraft and killing crew members inside. At this stage, it is postulated that passengers were all unconscious. 

The missle hit the front of the plane from the left and was launched from somewhere in an area of 320 sq km in Eastern Ukraine, Joustra said.

Relatives were given copies of the report and later journalists will be allowed into a hangar where part of MH17 has been reconstructed.

Meanwhile, Almaz-Antey, the Russian manufacturer of BUK missiles, held a concurrent event contesting the Dutch findings with results from experiments it carried out itself. Almaz-Antey spent 10 million rubles (US$160,000) on the experiments during its investigation into the MH17 crash, the company’s CEO Yan Novikov said.

Almaz-Antey said it had conducted an experiment on 7 October with Russian-made BUK missiles. The company says that if it was a BUK missle that hit the plane, it must have been a 9M38 missile and that only Ukraine has these.