BBC
MH17 crash: Dutch experts say numerous objects hit plane
Dutch experts say Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed after being hit by "numerous objects" that "pierced the plane at high speed".
A report released by the Dutch Safety Board said there was "no evidence of technical or human error".
All 298 people on board died when the plane came down, amid reports it was shot down by pro-Russian rebels.
The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in eastern Ukraine.
MH17: Dutch investigators point to 'external cause' of the crash - live updates
THE GUARDIAN
LIVE
- Dutch Safety Board: MH17 ‘penetrated’ by high-energy objects
- First official account of crash finds no technical fault
- ‘Crew were not to blame’, investigators found
- US and Ukraine said plane shot down by pro-Russians
Email
MH17 'penetrated by high-energy objects'
The preliminary report concludes that the the aircraft MH17 was “penetrated by a large number of high-energy objects from outside the aircraft”.
It does not use the word “missile”.
Report published
The report has been published on schedule and “points towards an external cause to the crash”.
The DSB said MH17:
Broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside. There are no indications that the MH17 crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the crew.
Eyewitnesses in Ukraine told BBC Panorama’s John Sweeney thatRussians were operating a BUK missile launcher in the area where MH17 came down.
Three eyewitnesses, all civilians, separately told Panorama that they saw a missile-launcher in rebel-held territory a few hours before the Boeing jet was hit.One eyewitness saw the missile-launcher roll off a low-loader at Snezhnoye, around ten miles from the crash site, at around 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT).“We just saw it being offloaded and when the BUK started its engine the exhaust smoke filled the whole town square,” he said.The eyewitness told the BBC that the crew struck him as Russian soldiers: “Well-disciplined, unlike the rebels, and not wearing the standard Ukrainian camouflage uniform sported by government and rebel troops alike.”“They had pure Russian accents. They say the letter ‘g’ differently to us,” he said.
Journalists have been handed embargoed copies of the report which is due to be officially published in the next few minutes.
Almost eight weeks after the crash the remains of the victims continue to bought home, the Straits Times reports.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, said his prayers are with the families of the victims.
Updated
Conspiracy theories abound among pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine about how MH17 came down, writes Shaun Walker in Donetsk.
Russia has stopped short of officially blaming Ukrainian forces for the tragedy but says there is much unexplained about the incident, and the Russian press has floated various conspiracy theories, including suggesting that MH17 was actually MH370, the Malaysian Airlines jet that went missing months earlier.According to that theory, the plane was filled with corpses by the CIA and deliberately crashed in east Ukraine to make Russia look bad.
Witnesses in towns near the crash site told the Guardian that they had seen what appeared to be a large missile system similar to the BUK system believed to be used against MH17 on the move on the day of the crash.A rebel leader admitted to Reuters that the rebels had indeed received a BUK in the days before the crash, but publicly the leaders have always denied they were ever in possession of the missile system, and in the region people generally believe that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down the plane.
At a rally in Donetsk on Monday, held to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of east Ukraine from the Nazis in the Second World War, three women were waving large photographs of a Malaysian airlines Boeing 777 in the air.On the reverse, they had written political slogans, one of them said: “We will cleanse our lands from the fascist junta”, referring to the Kiev government.
Asked why they had chosen photographs of the plane, the women said MH17 was a plane full of “peaceful people who had been killed by the junta”.
Malaysian investigators travelled to Donetsk in the days after the plane crash and negotiated directly with the Donetsk rebels to gain the handover of the plane’s two black boxes, which were presented to the delegation at a surreal press conference past midnight in the rebel capital.The handover was negotiated when the Malaysian prime minister telephoned Donetsk’s self-declared prime minister, Alexander Borodai, a Russian citizen who has since left the government and returned to Russia.
Welcome to our live coverage of the publication of the first official account of how Malaysia Airlines flight came down over eastern Ukraine on 17 July killing all 298 passengers on board.
The United States said there was “strong evidence” that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists. Moscow has denied this pointing instead to the Ukraine air force.
At 0800 GMT the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) is due to publish its preliminary report into the crash. It will include details gathered from the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder, satellite and other images, and radar information.
The DSB said it would not apportion blame for the incident but look only at the cause of the crash. It is due to publish its final report within a year.
The search for evidence has been hampered by heavy fighting in the area, which prevented investigators examining the site.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the region of Donetsk. Most of the 298 people on board were Dutch.
The DSB has a put together a useful Q&A on the background to its preliminary report.
It says:
The preliminary report provides an overview of the initial, provisional facts a relatively short time after the occurrence. When the report is released, not all investigation data will have been analysed and no definitive conclusions drawn. Additional investigation data, an analysis and the conclusions based thereon will be included in the final report, making it far more extensive and in-depth.
On the question of why it will not apportion blame, it said:
In addition to providing a clear understanding of the cause, the aim of the Dutch Safety Board’s work is to increase safety. This is achieved by investigating the causes of an incident and – if possible – making recommendations to improve safety.This is set out as such in the International Civil Aviation Organisation agreement, which deals specifically with aviation investigations ... Among other things, the ICAO agreement prescribes how aviation accidents must be investigated, and that the purpose of such investigations must be to improve safety and not to apportion blame or establish liability.
