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| Dutch report says MH17 broke up in air after being hit by ‘high-energy objects’ | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| ROME — The Dutch Safety Board released its preliminary report on the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Tuesday, saying the Boeing 777 broke up in the air as a result of structural damage caused by “a large number of high-energy objects” that penetrated it. | |
| There were no indications that the July 17 crash over embattled eastern Ukraine was caused by either a technical fault or by any actions of the crew, the report said. | There were no indications that the July 17 crash over embattled eastern Ukraine was caused by either a technical fault or by any actions of the crew, the report said. |
| The 34-page report set out what Dutch aviation investigators believe happened, but it did not apportion blame. Ukraine and the West accuse pro-Russian separatists, aided by Russia with both troops and firepower, of downing the passenger jet, an event that shocked the world. Russia blames Ukraine and denies it is supplying separatists in eastern Ukraine. | |
| The plane was airworthy when it departed Amsterdam en route to Kuala Lampur, manned by a qualified and experienced crew, the report said. The Dutch board, entrusted by the Ukrainians to investigate the crash, said it expected the final report to be published within a year of the controversial crash. | |
| “The cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder and data from air traffic control all suggest that flight MH17 proceeded as normal . . . after which it ended abruptly,” the report said. It said the communications among crew members “revealed no signs of any technical faults or an emergency situation.” | |
| Dutch investigators were not able to freely access the site because of the situation in war-torn eastern Ukraine, so used flight data recorders, satellite imagery, radar and information from the plane’s “black-box” recorders to compile the report. | Dutch investigators were not able to freely access the site because of the situation in war-torn eastern Ukraine, so used flight data recorders, satellite imagery, radar and information from the plane’s “black-box” recorders to compile the report. |
| The pattern of damage to the aircraft’s fuselage and cockpit is “consistent with that which may be expected from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside,” the report said. “It’s likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break-up. This also explains the abrupt end to the data registration on the recorders, the simultaneous loss of contact with air traffic control and the aircraft’s disappearance from radar.” | |
| U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile system supplied by Russia and fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian security service released intercepted phone conversations among rebel leaders suggesting that their forces were responsible and that they initially thought they had shot down a Ukrainian military plane. | |
| The Dutch report did not mention a missile, but the conclusion that the plane was struck by a large number of fragments would be consistent with a “proximity” warhead, designed to explode in the air and hurl shrapnel at its target, said Tim Ripley, a defense analyst with Jane’s Defense Weekly magazine, Reuters news agency reported. | |
| All 298 people on board MH17 died when the jet was blown out of the sky over the town of Hrabove, about 48 miles east of the rebel-held city of Donetsk. The victims included 43 Malaysians and 195 Dutch nationals, as well as people from Australia, Indonesia, Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand. | |
| The downing of the passenger jet hardened attitudes against Russia in the five-month-long Ukraine conflict. Fighting was reported Tuesday morning around Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine, although a fragile cease-fire has been in place there since Friday. Some 2,600 people have died in the conflict, according to the United Nations. | The downing of the passenger jet hardened attitudes against Russia in the five-month-long Ukraine conflict. Fighting was reported Tuesday morning around Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine, although a fragile cease-fire has been in place there since Friday. Some 2,600 people have died in the conflict, according to the United Nations. |
| In a a statement on the Dutch report, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak urged “all parties to work closely together to facilitate this investigation and the production of the final report.” | |
| He said the preliminary report “leads to the strong suspicion that a surface-to-air missile brought MH17 down, but further investigative work is needed before we can be certain.” |