DutchNews, October 13,
2015
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| Photo: OVV.nl |
Flight MH17 was
brought down by a Buk missile made by Russia, the Dutch safety board which is
investigating the cause of the accident, said on Tuesday.
‘We are talking about
a 9N314M missile which was fired by a Buk launcher,’ OVV chairman Tjibbe
Joustra said. ‘It hit the left-hand side of the cockpit. This is why the
cockpit broke off from the body of the plane.’
Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to
Kuala Lumpur was brought down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing
all 298 people on board. Most were Dutch nationals.
Joustra also said that
airspace above eastern Ukraine should have been closed because of the risk to
aircraft.
‘Well before the disaster there was information available which
pointed to the fact that civil aviation faced dangers,’ he said. ‘But despite
this information, Ukraine did not close the airspace.’
According to the report,
16 Ukrainian military aircraft had been shot down by rebel forces prior to the
crash.
‘Not just Ukraine but airlines, other countries and international
organisations did not adequately estimate the risks,’ he said. ‘No-one thought
about the risk to a civilian aircraft.’
Victims
The report also says the three
crew members in the cockpit were killed by the missile explosion instantly, and
that traces of the missile were found in their bodies.
However, it is unclear
at which point the other occupants died and the possibility that some remained
conscious for up to 90 seconds could not be ruled out, the report said.
One
passenger was found with an oxygen mask around their neck. The report said
there is no information about how this body was found on the ground. Nor was
there dna or fingerprint evidence to determine if the mask been put on by the
victim.
Responsibility
The long-awaited report, which does not state who was
responsible for firing the rocket, was presented to the public at the
Gilze-Rijen airbase in the early afternoon.
Despite the international interest,
journalists were not allowed to ask questions about the report’s contents,
Dutch media reported.
The investigation into who is responsible for the downing
of Malaysian Airways flight MH17 will continue well into next year, a spokesman
for the Dutch public prosecution service said earlier this week.
Russia
Russia,
which presented the results of its own investigation into the crash also on
Tuesday, has strongly denied the Dutch claims that one of its missiles caused
the crash.
Officials from the Buk manufacturers held their own news conference
in Moscow earlier on Tuesday.
According to Ian Novikov, director of the Buk
missile factory, its tests show that the plane was brought down by an older
missile, a type produced in the days of the Soviet Union and used by the
Ukrainian army.
The OVV report
The OVV report
 |
The wrecked
fuselage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is presented to the press during
a
presentation of the final report on the cause of its crash, at the Gilze Rijen
airbase
October 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)
|
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