Three sentenced to life for flight MH17 downing

 Yahoo – AFP, Danny KEMP, November 17, 2022 

A Dutch court on Thursday sentenced three men to life imprisonment over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, in the early stages of a war that eight years later would put the world on edge. 

Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty in absentia of murdering all 298 people on board and of bringing down the Boeing 777 with a Russian-supplied missile. A fourth man was acquitted. 

Moscow slammed the "scandalous" verdict as politically motivated, while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky -- battling a full-scale Russian invasion after years of low-level fighting in the east -- praised it as "important". 

Relatives of MH17 victims blinked away tears as the verdicts were read out in a courtroom packed with families who had travelled from around the world for the end of the two-and-a-half-year trial. 

"The court calls the proven charges so severe that it holds that only the highest possible prison sentence would be appropriate," head judge Hendrik Steenhuis said.

 "Imposing these sentences cannot take away the pain and suffering, but there's hope that today clarity has been provided about who is to blame." 

But none of the suspects was at the high-security court on the outskirts of Schiphol Airport, where the doomed plane took off, after Russia refused to extradite them. 

'Justice has spoken'

The trial represents the end of a long search for justice for the victims of the disaster, who came from 10 countries, including 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians. 

"Justice has spoken. We wanted justice to be done and that happened, in a very well-balanced verdict," Piet Ploeg, chairman of the MH17 foundation, who lost his brother, sister-in-law and nephew, told AFP. 

"The role of Russia has been very clearly confirmed by the court." 

Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was cruising at 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) over war-torn eastern Ukraine when a BUK missile exploded near the cockpit on July 17, 2014, tearing the plane apart. 

The crash triggered global outrage and sanctions against Moscow, with Ukraine's famed sunflower fields littered with bodies and wreckage. Some victims, including children, were still strapped into their seats. 

Judges found Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko could all be held responsible for the transport of the missile from a military base in Russia and deploying it to the launch site -- even if they did not pull the trigger. 

There was not enough evidence to show the involvement of Oleg Pulatov, the only suspect to have legal representation during the trial, they said. 

All the suspects were members of the Donetsk People's Republic, an armed group fighting Ukraine's government that judges ruled was directly controlled by Russia. 

'Ample evidence'

Girkin, 51, a former Russian spy who became the so-called defence minister of the DPR, was in regular contact with Moscow, particularly over the return of the missile after the tragedy, the court ruled.  

Kharchenko, 50, who allegedly led a separatist unit, received direct orders from Dubinsky, 60, who has also been tied to Russian intelligence, to escort the missile to the final launch site, the court ruled. 

The defendants had apparently intended to shoot down a Ukrainian military plane rather than a civilian jet but that did not affect their guilt, the judges said. 

Russia's continued denials that it controlled the DPR meanwhile meant the defendants could not claim immunity from prosecution as formal combatants, they added. 

The court ruled there was "ample evidence" to show the plane was brought down by the missile, and ruled out "alternative scenarios" suggested by the defence, including that it was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet. 

The BUK missile had been identified as coming from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk in Russia, prosecutors said. 

'Unprecedented pressure'

Moscow has denied all involvement in the crash, and on Thursday it accused the Dutch court of giving its verdict under "unprecedented pressure" from politicians and the media. 

The Russian foreign ministry said the trial could go down history as "one of the most scandalous in the history of legal proceedings with its extensive list of oddities, inconsistencies and dubious arguments of the prosecution". 

Ukraine's Zelensky said on Twitter that "holding the instigators to account is crucial too because a sense of impunity leads to new crimes". 

The United States welcomed the verdict as "an important moment in ongoing efforts to deliver justice for the 298 individuals who lost their lives". 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the convictions were "not the end", while NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg they were an "important day for justice and accountability".

Anger as MH370 report offers no new clues to aviation's greatest mystery

Yahoo – AFP, M. Jegathesan, 30 July 2018

Sarah Nor, the mother of a passenger on MH370, weeps as she arrives for
the final investigation report

Investigators said Monday they still do not know why Malaysia's Flight MH370 vanished four years ago in aviation's greatest mystery, sparking anger and disappointment among relatives of those on board.

In a long-awaited report the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic controllers, said the course of the Malaysia Airlines plane was changed manually, and refused to rule out that someone other than the pilots had diverted the jet.

But after years of fruitless searching for the Boeing 777 that disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people aboard, the report offered nothing concrete to grieving relatives of passengers and crew hoping for some sort of closure.

"The team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370," concluded the largely technical 400-page report, noting that investigators were hindered in their probe as neither the plane's wreckage nor its black boxes had been found.

Investigators said the plane was airworthy and the pilots were in a fit state to fly, and dismissed the theory that the plane had been taken over remotely to foil a hijacking.

Relatives who were briefed at the transport ministry in the administrative capital Putrajaya before the report's public release expressed anger that there was nothing new in the document, with some storming out of the briefing as frustration boiled over.

"It is so disappointing," said Intan Maizura Othman, whose husband was a steward on MH370, which had been flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying mostly mainland Chinese passengers when it vanished.

"I am frustrated. There is nothing new in the report."

She said the meeting between relatives and officials descended into a "shouting match" as anger mounted.

G. Subramaniam, who lost a son on the flight, added that "unsatisfactory responses left many angry".

Largest hunt in history

The disappearance of MH370 triggered the largest hunt in aviation history. But no sign of it was found in a 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led hunt was suspended in January last year.

Copies of the MH370 safety investigations report are seen on the floor 

during a media briefing

US exploration firm Ocean Infinity resumed the search in a different location at the start of this year on a "no find, no fee" basis, using high-tech drones to scour the seabed. But that search was also called off after failing to find anything.

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.

Malaysia's new government, which took power in May, has said the hunt could be resumed but only if new evidence comes to light.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke insisted Monday that "the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned and we remain ever-hopeful that we will be able to find the answers we seek when the credible evidence becomes available".

One area that came in for criticism in the report by the 19-member team, which included foreign investigators, was air traffic control.

It said both Malaysian air traffic control and their Vietnamese counterparts failed to act properly when the Boeing jet passed from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace and disappeared from radars.

Air traffic controllers did not initiate emergency procedures in a timely fashion, delaying the start of the search and rescue operation, it said.

However it played down concerns about the pilot and first officer, saying neither appeared to have suffered difficulties in their personal lives that could have affected their ability to fly.

"We did not find any change to their behaviour, everything was normal," Kok Soo Chon, head of the investigation team, told a press conference.

The report also said the plane was airworthy and did not have major technical issues, with Kok saying it had been diverted from its intended flight path manually.

Intervention by a third party could not be ruled out, the report said, but also added there was no evidence to suggest the plane was flown by anyone other than the pilots.

Graphic on the debris so far discovered from Malaysia Airlines MH370 that went missing in 2014 with 239 people on board pic.twitter.com/7Y0IgMl6c8

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 30, 2018

MH370 search to end next week: Malaysian minister

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick Lee, May 23, 2018

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people onboard
while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (AFP Photo/Manan VATSYAYANA)

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - The search for flight MH370 will end next week, Malaysia's transport minister said Wednesday, more than four years after the plane disappeared and triggered one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

The Malaysia Airlines jet vanished in March 2014 with 239 people -- mostly from China -- on board, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No sign of the jet was found in a 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) sea search zone and the Australian-led hunt, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January last year.

After pressure from family members, the former Malaysian government struck a deal with US exploration firm Ocean Infinity to restart the search in January on the condition it would only be paid if the Boeing 777 or its black boxes were found.

The firm stood to make up to $70 million if successful but did not find any sign of the jet despite scouring the seabed with some of the world's most hi-tech search equipment.

Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke, part of the new government that came to power following May 9 elections, said the hunt was officially meant to finish in April but had been extended, and would come an end next week.

"The search will continue until May 29," he told reporters.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had said earlier that the contract with Ocean Infinity was being reviewed, as his administration seeks to cut costs after accusing the allegedly corrupt former regime of leaving the public finances in bad shape.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian lawyer whose mother Anne Daisy was on the plane, said the news was not a surprise but said the government should leave the "no find, no fee" offer on the table in case a company wants to take on the search in future.

Relatives of passengers of MH370 urged the Malaysian government to undertake 

a "comprehensive review" of all matters related to the plane's disappearance 

(AFP Photo/Manan VATSYAYANA)

"We can't tell (the government) what to do but for me and the families... finding the plane is important for many reasons," she told AFP.

'Comprehensive review'

In a letter to the new administration released before the end of the search was announced, Voice370 -- a group representing families of those on the plane whose members include Nathan -- urged the government to undertake a "comprehensive review" of all matters related to the plane's disappearance.

It also called for "an investigation into any possible falsification and/or elimination of records related to MH370".

The new hunt was in an area of about 25,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean, north of the former search area.

The ship conducting the hunt, Seabed Constructor, was a Norwegian research vessel carrying 65 crew, including two members of the Malaysian navy as the government's representatives.

It used eight autonomous drones, equipped with sonars and cameras, that scoured the waters for wreckage and can operate in depths up to 6,000 metres (20,000 feet).

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.

The jet's disappearance stands as one of the most enduring aviation mysteries of all time and has spawned a host of theories, with some blaming a hijacking or even a terror plot.

Mahathir himself revived one of the many conspiracy theories in March when he suggested the plane could have been taken over remotely to foil a hijacking.

Earlier this week, Australian investigators defended their findings that the plane was out of control when it plunged into the ocean, after a theory that a rogue pilot deliberately ditched the jet was revived in a book by a Canadian air crash investigator.

MH17 may have been shot down ‘by mistake’, investigator tells NRC

DutchNews, December 30, 2017

A fragment of the BUK missile. Picture: JIT 

There is an ‘extremely large amount of material’ which suggests flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by accident, the leader of the team investigating the incident has told the NRC. 

Fred Westerbeke, who heads the international team which is carrying out the criminal investigation into the attack, says it is still too early to draw conclusions but that a number of questions must be asked. 

In particular, the team wants to know why the Malaysia Airways plane was shot down rather than one from the ‘enemy’ Ukraine airforce. ‘It is really important for us to know this,’ he said.

‘Why was the BUK used to bring down a passenger airline rather than a jet fighter or an Antonov from Ukraine,’ he said. ‘What was the aim?’ 

All 298 people on board flight MH17 were killed when it was struck by a missile on July 17, 2014, and crashed into fields in eastern Ukraine. Two-thirds of the passengers on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch. 

The JIT’s preliminary investigations concluded last year that the plane was shot down from Ukrainian farmland by a BUK missile ‘controlled by pro-Russian fighters’. That conclusion has been disputed by Russia, which claims that Ukrainian fighters were responsible.

Verstappen wins Malaysian F1 Grand Prix in Sepang swansong

Yahoo – AFP, Daniel HICKS, Oct 1, 2017

Red Bull's Dutch driver Max Verstappen (C) celebrates on the podium after winning
the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix in Sepang on October 1, 2017 as second-placed
Lewis Hamilton (L) and Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo (R) look on (AFP Photo/
MANAN VATSYAYANA)

Sepang (Malaysia) (AFP) - Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the final running of the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday as Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton finished second to extend his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel to 34 points.

Verstappen, who celebrated his 20th birthday a day earlier, overtook pole-sitter Hamilton on lap four before clinching the second victory of his career and first this season.

Mercedes driver Hamilton finished second with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo third and Vettel, who started at the back of the grid, fourth.

With five races to go, Hamilton is edging ever closer to the title but Ferrari had a weekend to forget, after Kimi Raikkonen didn't even make the starting grid and Vettel lost a rear wheel in a bizarre smash after the finish line.

Verstappen won by nearly 13 seconds from Hamilton to embellish what has been a tough season after he failed to finish seven races and only once reached the podium.

"The car was unbelievable, if I had to speed up I could. It was a very tough race and incredible to win," said the Dutchman.

Hamilton admitted the Mercedes had been second-best. "Big congratulations to Max and happy birthday, he did a fantastic job today," he said.

"The race was a tough one, obviously they just had the upper hand on us today... I feel good but I think we have some work to do with the car. Obviously we didn't have the pace this weekend."

Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo fought off a strong challenge from Vettel, who had started from the back following engine problems in qualifying.

"Seb came really quick at the end and I thought he was going to be a handful," said Ricciardo. "But he only had one strong attack and then we were able to pull away."

Ferrari's fortunes had dimmed when Kimi Raikkonen's car suffered a turbo failure before the start.

He was pushed back to the pit and the race was over before it had even begun for the former world champion, who had enjoyed his maiden win at Sepang in 2003.

'We ran out of tyres'

"Obviously we had some issue. I don't think any of us know what it is exactly. I'm pretty certain I would have had a very good car today," a disappointed Raikkonen told reporters.

Vettel, who led the championship until just a month ago, now has only five races left to overhaul Hamilton's big lead, starting next week in Japan.

"I think we have a very good car. If we start ahead, we win the race," he said. "We had a little bit of sniff at the podium but unfortunately we ran out of tyres."

Once past Hamilton, Verstappen started to pull away and by lap 14 he had a seven-second cushion.

Vettel was picking off the back markers with ease courtesy of his second new engine of the weekend, and emerged in fourth in front of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas after they both pitted for new tyres.

As the top four entered the final 10 laps of the 56, Vettel set a new race lap record of 1min 33.864sec, smashing Juan Pablo Montoya's 2004 mark of 1:34.223, and was closing fast on Ricciardo's exhaust pipe.

Vettel made one daring attempt to grab the last podium spot up the inside of Ricciardo at the end of the pit straight with seven laps to go.

But the Australian closed him off and Vettel was forced to drop back and settle for fourth as his front tyres started to degrade.

The drama didn't end there as on his slow-down lap, Vettel collided with the Williams of Lance Stroll which left his Ferrari with one rear wheel on top of his car.

"That's impossible," Vettel thundered over the radio. "Stroll wasn't looking where he was going!"

It was the 19th and last Malaysian Grand Prix at steamy Sepang.

The race will disappear from the calendar after Malaysia's government decided it would no longer cover the $67 million a year cost of staging the loss-making event.

Max Verstappen celebrates his first Grand Prix win, taking the top spot in Spain
 on May 15, 2016 and becoming the youngest ever Formula One winner at 18 years
of age (AFP Photo/Lluis Gene)

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"The Energy of the Future" - Dec 7, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… The New 'Message' from Space

Let me tell you what the message is that is being communicated: Unlock to 44 percent! This is the message: The Human race has passed the marker and is ready for the next step in evolution. I am talking about the old soul. You are the ones who will be first to get this message. It is you, and some of your "old soul" children, who are starting to feel and accept this!

Let me tell you in this lesson today that the first thing that this unlocking will begin to create is what we're going to call Akashic acuity. You're going to start remembering, and it's about time. Can you celebrate this? It's about time that when you're born you don't start from scratch, in the dark, and doing everything all over again. Instead, you remember!

I want to talk to some individuals who are listening to this and are in this room. Have your grandchildren had the audacity to tell you who they used to be? Don't raise your hand; I know you're here. They feel it, and they know it, and out of the mouths of these babes come the most profound information that this planet has ever heard! They knew who they were! Some will point their fingers at you and say, “Don't you remember? I was your mum in another life.” That's a bit disconcerting, isn't it?

I want you to remember one of the premises of incarnation, the one that we have given you over and over. You incarnate in family groups. There's a reason for this, so there is comfort and joy. It's so you don't have to learn the energy of each related person, all over again, each time. The energies of the family stay together and you can accomplish more that way. There's always a benevolent reason for these things. Every single attribute of the esoteric system of life, whether it's your grids or reincarnation, is benevolent. Did you hear that? It's a beautiful system, and not random. It's not about judgment; it's not about punishment. It is, instead, about the love of God for you, and what I'm about to tell you is what is changing is energy.

Akashic Acuity

So we have established that you are moving into this new radiation, and we have established that it intersects the sun. The sun blasts your magnetic field with it (via the solar wind) and the magnetic field talks to your DNA. Suddenly, there is the potential some of your DNA is being unlocked. The attributes of unlocking Akashic acuity will help you to remember who you've been. Now, with this remembrance comes energy - not about who you were, but rather it gives you the energy of what you did. I don't mean physically; I mean energetically and mentally. Old souls carry with them experience. When you look into the eyes of a child, you're going to see wisdom just waiting to break out. Dear ones, these children are different. They are not going to go through what you did! They have a whole new set of issues, and most of their issues are trying to navigate the old issues you create for them!

There's something we brought up in a former channelling called the wisdom factor. Now, the wisdom factor is caused by Akashic acuity. After living Human life over and over, you start remembering the wisdom that you have gained through these past lifetimes. You don't necessarily remember who you were, but rather the fact that you were at all and the experiences you had. Imagine a child coming into the planet knowing how to read? Imagine a child coming into the planet knowing not to touch something hot? Where did it come from? You're going to see more of this, and a feeling of "been there, done that".

Akashic acuity is remembrance of experience during past lifetimes. As the child grows, that remembrance becomes pure wisdom. As the child starts to awaken and the pineal opens, something else happens. The grid starts talking to the child through the DNA, and in the grid is also the information from the time capsules we spoke about in past channellings. The time capsules start feeding the planet with increased wisdom and knowledge. You don't have to reincarnate to awaken even further! Akashic acuity means suddenly Humans know more than other children have in the past - much more. …”

Tech advances will lead to MH370 discovery - Malaysia Airlines

Yahoo – AFP, August 1, 2017

So far, three fragments of MH370 have been found on western Indian Ocean
shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon

The resting place of missing flight MH370 will eventually be found but it will require advances in science and technology, including artificial intelligence, Malaysia Airlines' chief said Tuesday.

No trace of the Boeing 777, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board, was found during a lengthy deep sea hunt in the southern Indian Ocean off western Australia, with the search called off in January.

"There will be advances in science that will help locate the wreckage eventually," the Malaysian carrier's chief executive Peter Bellew told The Australian newspaper, adding the discovery "might unlock closure for some people".

Bellew, in Sydney for an aviation summit, said the advances could come through "the availability of artificial intelligence that's coming on stream", high-capacity computing power and university research.

He did not give further details about what specific research could lead to a breakthrough, but added that private efforts to locate the plane could also play a part.

So far, three fragments of MH370 have been found on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.

"(There are people) who are spending a lot of their own resources at the moment and co-ordinating with authorities... I do think somebody will make a breakthrough somewhere around this, or a combination of people," Bellew said.

"It will create a situation where there will be some chance of pinpointing the location of where the aircraft may well be."

Australia's national science body CSIRO said in April that MH370 was "most likely" lying north of the former search zone -- a 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) area largely defined through satellite "pings" and the flight's estimated fuel load.

But Transport Minister Darren Chester has said the underwater probe would not resume unless new evidence about the specific location of the aircraft emerges.

Australia last month released to the public detailed maps showing the topography of the sea floor where the search took place, with a second set of data to be released in mid-2018.

Tech advances will lead to discovery of missing flight MH370, says Malaysia Airlines https://t.co/4FHt8pQTLq pic.twitter.com/CaE7sjfZ6T

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 1, 2017

Mauritius wing debris from missing MH370: Australia

Yahoo – AFP, October 7, 2016

A trailing edge section of Boeing 777 left, outboard flap, originating from the
Malaysian Airlines aircraft registered 9M-MRO (MH370), the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau said (AFP Photo)

Sydney (AFP) - A piece of wing debris found in Mauritius is from MH370, Australian authorities said Friday as they cautioned the discovery shed no new light on the missing passenger jet's specific location.

The composite debris, recovered from the island nation in May, is the latest fragment found along western Indian Ocean shorelines linked to Malaysia Airlines MH370.

The Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Despite an extensive underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean far off Western Australia's coast where investigators believe the plane crashed, no trace of the aircraft has been found there.

The wing part "was a trailing edge section of Boeing 777 left, outboard flap, originating from the Malaysian Airlines aircraft registered 9M-MRO (MH370)", the government agency leading the search, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said in a report.

"A part number was identified on a section of the debris," the ATSB said, adding that another "unique work order number" assigned by the flap manufacturer corresponded to MH370.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said investigators "remain hopeful" MH370 would be found.

"The finding of this debris... continues to affirm the focus of search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean," Chester said in a statement.

A large piece of debris found in Tanzania that has been confirmed as a

 part of a wing flap from missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet MH370 

(AFP Photo)

"It does not, however, provide information that can be used to determine a specific location of the aircraft."

The ATSB report came two weeks after the agency said officials had yet to link debris recovered from Madagascar by US amateur investigator Blaine Gibson to MH370 or a Boeing 777.

Officials also said the debris found in Madagascar was not exposed to fire, quashing earlier speculation.

The failure to locate any debris in the search zone has fuelled speculation the plane may have crashed outside the area.

Several pieces of debris linked to the flight have been discovered along western Indian Ocean shorelines -- in Mozambique, South Africa and Mauritius.

The Mauritius part is the third fragment to be confirmed as coming from MH370. Malaysia said in mid-September that debris found in June off Tanzania came from the doomed airliner.

The first piece found -- a two-metre (six-foot) wing part known as a flaperon that washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in July 2015 -- was confirmed by French authorities as from MH370.

More than 110,000 square kilometres of the search area has been scoured so far, Australia said this week, adding that the hunt was set to be completed in December.

Buk missile brought down MH17, airspace should have been closed

DutchNews, October 13, 2015

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 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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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Aug 3, 2014) - (MH17)

Russian maker of missile that destroyed MH17 to explain disaster

Yahoo – AFP, 9 Oct 2015

A picture taken on October 15, 2014 shows the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines

flight MH17 near the village of Rassipnoe (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)

Moscow (AFP) - The Russian manufacturer of the missile system blamed for shooting down flight MH17 said Friday it would unveil the "real reasons" for the disaster on the same day Dutch investigators present their final report on the tragedy.

Almaz-Antey, the maker of the BUK surface-to-air system that the West and Kiev believe downed MH17, said it would present its version of events at a press conference on Tuesday after holding an "experiment" that entailed detonating a missile next to a plane.

The company will air its claims on the same day that Dutch investigators issue their report following a 15-month probe.

All 298 people onboard were killed when the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was downed over east Ukraine on July 17 last year.

Almaz-Antey said it would "present the results of a full-scale experiment, a real simulation of an encounter between a BUK-type missile and a passenger plane."

The test "will help understand the real causes of the catastrophe," it said.

Ukraine and many in the West have accused pro-Russian rebels of blowing the airliner out of the sky with a BUK missile supplied from Russia, possibly mistaking it for a Ukrainian warplane.

Moscow has vehemently denied any involvement, providing a range of conflicting theories, including an air-to-air missile putatively launched by a Ukrainian jet.

Almaz-Antey in June said the BUK-M1 type of missile has not been produced in Russia since 1999 and is in the arsenal of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Moscow in July vetoed a UN resolution to establish an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the downing.

Investigators in the Dutch probe have said that they found fragments at the crash site that seem to be from a Russian-made surface-to-air missile. The report findings next week are expected to provide details but will not assign blame.

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