Gilze- Rijen, Netherlands: The Dutch Safety Board has concluded in its final report that the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made BUK missile, killing all 298 passengers on board, majority Dutch. The board's findings however, has not mentioned the group or party responsible for launching the missile.
A fight had emerged in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces ever since the aircraft was downed. Western experts took to blame the rebels. “A 9N314M warhead detonated outside the aeroplane to the left side of the cockpit. This fits the kind of warhead installed in the Buk surface-to-air missile system,” said Safety Board head Tjibbe Joustra, presenting the report. Russia for its part disputes that a BUK may have been used. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov responded to the report by saying there had been “an obvious attempt to draw a biased conclusion, and carry out political orders”, according to Russian news agencies. The Safety Board report said that simulations of the missile's trajectory showed it came from somewhere in an area covering some 320 kilometres southeast of Grabovo, Ukraine; an area mostly controlled by separatists.
Makers of the BUK said their tests had shown that the aircraft could not have been hit by a misslie fired from the rebel-controlled territory. While the report hasn't named anyone for the strike, it will certainly further strain diplomatic ties between the Netherlands and its allies, and Russia. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged Russia to cooperate fully with a separate criminal investigation issued by the Netherlands, with the participation of Malaysia, Australia, Ukraine and Belgium.
The White House called the report an “important milestone in the effort to hold accountable those responsible”. “Our assessment is unchanged — MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said. The report also seemed certain to strengthen calls within the airline industry for a review of how information is shared in conflict zones.
