MH17 report: Russian-made BUK missile hit plane over Ukraine - Dutch experts

The Dutch Safety Board present extensive evidence after 15-month long investigation

Brought down by a Russian-made BUK missile - that was the result of a Dutch-led inquiry into the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster over eastern Ukraine. Investigators presented their final report on Tuesday afternoon.

This footage is from the conference in the Netherlands. The report went into extensive detail about how the passenger plane was hit. It said that the warhead was detonated on the left side of the cockpit, outside of the aircraft.

In the explosion, thousands of small metal objects hit MH17 with incredible force, causing extensive structural damage to the forward part of the plane.

Experts also concluded that those aboard would have died instantly and that the impact was not from an air-to-air missile strike, a common theory presented by Russian-backed media.

It was also found that prior to the downing of MH17, some 160 flights by 61 operators from 32 different countries flew over the eastern Ukraine conflict zone between 14-17 July 2014 before the airspace was closed.

The reason for this was the fact nobody, neither the Ukrainian government nor international air operators, took into account the risk of choosing that particular flight route.

The Dutch Safety Board called on all countries in conflict to do more to ensure civilian airliners. The conclusions took 15 months to complete and from the start, didn't set out to lay blame on any particular group – that is out of the investigators remit and will be dealt with in a separate case.

Source: REUTERS