Investigators :Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was Downed by BUK Warhead
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Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 M17 Disaster |
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Amsterdam toKuala Lumpur that crashed on 17 July 2014 after being shot down, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.196 Dutch nationals and 10 Britons.
WATCH: Dutch Safety Board
The plane - flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur - crashed at the height of the conflict between government troops and the pro-Russian separatists.
WATCH: Dutch Safety Board
simulates #MH17 being hit by BUK missile https://t.co/r2MXZFwSnZ
https://t.co/7y5sFbpAik
— RT (@RT_com) October 13, 2015
The White House is calling the Dutch report identifying a Russian-made Buk missile as the cause of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash an “important milestone in the effort to hold accountable those responsible,” Reuters Reports.
The Dutch Safety Board report on last year’s fatal crash also claims the missile was fired from an area held by Russian-backed separatists and identifies the site where the Boeing 777 crashed in Eastern Ukraine as also belonging to the rebels. The crash killed all 298 on board almost instantly.
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Investigators :Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was Downed by BUK Warhead
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Investigators claim the plane should never have been flying over Ukrainian airspace due to the ongoing fighting between separatists and Ukrainian government troops since April 2014.
“Nobody gave any thought” to the risk, investigators said of Ukraine not closing its airspace to civil aviation. The 15-month investigation also found states in civil conflict must do more going forward to protect passenger planes.
The Buk missile exploded less than a meter from the cockpit, the report states. The missile killed three cockpit crew members on impact and broke off the front of the plane. The rest of the crew and the passengers died due to decompression, reduced oxygen levels, extreme cold, powerful airflow and flying objects.
“It cannot be ruled out that some occupants remained conscious" during the 60 to 90 seconds before the plane crashed, the report added.
The Dutch Safety Board shared the report’s conclusions with family of those who died.
Also Tuesday, Dutch investigators unveiled a reconstruction of the forward section of MH17. Some of the nose, cockpit and business class of the Boeing 777 were rebuilt from fragments of the aircraft recovered from the crash scene. Much of the reassembled wreckage was twisted and riddled with holes.
Russia has denied the Dutch report’s findings, claiming there are no grounds to conclude the missile was a Russian-made Buk or fired from separatist territory.
The missile's Russian-state controlled maker presented its own report Tuesday trying to clear Russian-backed separatists or Moscow of any involvement.
Russia's experiments refute Dutch claims the missile was fired from Snizhne, a village that was under rebel control. An Associated Press reporter saw a Buk missile system in that vicinity on the same day.
The Almaz-Antey in June also said that a preliminary investigation suggested that the plane was downed by a model of Buk that is no longer in service with the Russian military but that was part of the Ukrainian military arsenal.
Many reports, including an investigation by the open-source group Bellingcat, suggest the plane was downed by a missile fired from near Snizhne.
Oringall report:http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/10/13/mh17-crash-report-finds-plane-downed-by-russian-missile-over-eastern-ukraine/
This graphic shows how investigators concluded #MH17 was hit by a Russian-made missile http://t.co/R1Xn2syOnB
https://t.co/lWNucs1BWD
— ITV News (@itvnews) October 13, 2015
