Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report revealed that the plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July while flying at 33,000 feet from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The new report revealed that the plane was hit by several "high-energy objects", causing it to "split into pieces" over eastern Ukraine. The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report confirmed something that was only once a possibility.
According to multiple reports, the preliminary report on the Malaysia Airlines plane crash was published Tuesday by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB).
According to The Telegraph, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report showed no evidence of technical faults or an emergency situation.
The 34-page report is the first official publication as to how the plane crashed, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The investigation reportedly involved representatives from the U.S., U.K. and International Civil Aviation Organization.
The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report revealed that the Jul. 17 flight came to an abrupt end at 1:20 p.m. Before this, there were no unusual feedback and operations remained normal. The flight's cockpit voice recorder also reportedly showed no warning tones or an emergency situation in the cockpit before the crash.
The report by the DSB said the Boeing 777 was most likely shot down by a missile. Though it pointed towards this conclusion, the Associated Press reports that the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report did not include who was responsible for the shot down.
Apparently, the Boeing 777 just crashed swiftly down from the sky, and over the pro-Russian rebel-held territory in Ukraine. Previous reports have confirmed that a total of 298 passengers and crew on board died from the tragic incident.
The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report stated that "the damage observed in the forward section of the aircraft appears to indicate that the aircraft was penetrated by a large number of high-energy objects from outside the aircraft."
It added, "It is likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break up."
According to the AP, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report - which is led by the DSB - is still being investigated. A full report is set to be published within a year of the crash.
Meanwhile, the WSJ reports that Dutch investigators at The Hague have opened a criminal investigation - the largest of its kind in Dutch history - separate from the air-accident investigation.
Dutch prosecutors are reportedly gathering evidence and are hoping to file criminal charges in Dutch courts.
The board's chairman, Tjibbe Joustra, said in a statement, "The initial results of the investigation point toward an external cause of the MH17 crash."
Joustra said, "More research will be necessary to determine the cause with greater precision. The Safety Board believes that additional evidence will become available for investigation in the period ahead."
However, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report has not yet concluded what and who fired the missile.
Investigators from the board initially want to visit the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines in Russia, but because of the conflict between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces, investigators were not able to visit the fields where the actual wreckage could be found.
The report said, "Detailed examination of the structural damage is ongoing. Forensic examination will be performed if the wreckage can be removed."
In order to come up with the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report, investigators had to rely on photos of the crash site, radar data and information from the jet's "black boxes", its cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
According to the Safety Board, the cockpit voice recorder "revealed no signs of any technical faults or an emergency situation. Neither was there any warning tones heard in the cockpit that might have pointed to technical problems."
The AP reports that Pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian separatists responded to the report by stating they did not shoot the plane. The rebels also said that they did not have the capability to shoot down the flight.
Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told Russia's Interfax news agency, "I can say only one thing: we simply do not have the military hardware capable of shooting down a Boeing passenger jet such as the Malaysian plane."
However, according to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report, the Ukrainian government have intercepted phone conversations between the rebels and released it to the public, showing that the rebels were indeed responsible for the crash.
The tapes reportedly reveal the rebels reaching the scene of the crash swearing when after seeing the number of dead bodies and the logo of Malaysia Airlines.
Meanwhile, the DSB said the sole intention of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report was only to determine the cause of the crash.
As of the current moment, 193 out of 293 victims have been identified.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash report may be released only a full year after the crash, but it is hoped that the investigators could return to the crash site after the ceasefire holds to gather more evidence. However, analysts said it is still too early to assess the team's security.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
