Preliminary report into MH17 confirms external factors brought plane down
Posted September 9, 2014 7:03 am.
Last Updated November 17, 2014 5:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The first official report looking into what brought down flight MH17 in July confirms that the aircraft broke up in mid-air “probably as the result of structural damage” caused by multiple “high-energy objects” that hit the plane.
The Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky July 17 over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people on board.
The preliminary findings by Dutch Aviation experts backs up claims that the Boeing 777 was hit by shrapnel from a missile.
The researchers relied on black box recorders, air traffic control, satellite images and photos from the scene for the report.
The experts stopped short of assigning any blame for the crash.
Despite reports that pro-Russian rebels shot down the plane, Russia has consistently denied allegations that it gave missiles or weapons to the rebels.
The crash site in the war-torn region was unsecured for many days but the dutch report found “no evidence or indications of manipulation of the recorders.”
Around two-thirds of the people on board were Dutch.
A final report on the deadly aviation disaster is expected in 2015.
