Dutch investigators say MH17 downed by Russian-made Buk missile

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was hit and destroyed by a Russian-made surface-to-air Buk missile over eastern Ukraine, the Dutch Safety Board (DSB)concluded on Tuesday after a 15-month investigation.

“A 9N314M warhead, launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system from a 320-square-kilometre area in the eastern part of Ukraine, detonated to the left and above the cockpit,” the final report said.

According to the investigation, the missile approached the aircraft almost head-on, after the forward section was hit, it took 1 to 1.5 minutes for the rest of the aeroplane to hit the ground.

MH17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in rebel-controlled territory on July 17, 2014.

All 298 people on board were killed. They include; 193 Dutch, 43 Malaysians, 27 Australians, and 12 Indonesians.

Others include; 10 Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, a Canadian and a New Zealander.

Investigators said the front section of the plane was “penetrated by hundreds of high-energy objects coming from the warhead”.

The result of the impact and massive pressure wave instantly killed three crew in the cockpit, DSB said, adding that a “large number of fragments from the warheads were found in their bodies.”

The aircraft broke up mid-air and the cockpit and floor of the business class section were instantly torn away from the fuselage and crashed, while the rest of the plane flew for about 8.5 kilometres east.

DSB Chairman, Tjibbe Joustra, laid to rest what he said was speculation across the world about the crash, saying the investigation determined what happened to MH17, but “also took into account what did not happen”.

“MH17 did not crash as a result of meteor strikes, we have excluded the possibility of technical defects or a bomb,” he said, adding also there was no mid-air collision with another plane.

The plane broke up and scattered over a wreckage area of 50 square kilometres, he said.

The investigators also looked into the impact of the crash on the passengers and crew, and concluded that a number of them “immediately sustained severe injuries probably causing death”.

“For others, the exposure caused reduced awareness or unconsciousness within moments,” they said, adding that “it is certain that the impact on the ground was not survivable”.

The final report was presented at the Gilze-Rijen military airport in the country’s south, and the victims’ families were briefed first on the findings in The Hague.

Reacting to the investigation, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: “Our priority now is to find the perpetrators and prosecute them”.

“I call on the Russian authorities to respect this report and give full cooperation into the investigation by public prosecutors,” he added, referring to the Dutch-led criminal investigation that is still ongoing.

Malaysia Airlines welcomed the “detailed and exhaustive” DSB report, and said it was “very grateful for the support from the Dutch Government”.

Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia, Russia, Britain and the U.S all contributed to the Dutch investigation