Reconstructed aircraft photograph released with Dutch Safety Board's Final Report on MH17
The Dutch Safety Board says in its final report today:
The crash of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 was caused by the detonation of a 9N314M-type warhead launched from the eastern part of Ukraine using a Buk missile system.
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The Buk missile system is Russian-made. However, the report doesn't say who fired the missile. Instead, it specifies that it came from a source within 320 square kilometers on the ground, roughly equal to a square measuring 11 miles on each side.
The Board also released a video of its findings.
A press release from the Board says:
The investigation has shown that flight MH17 progressed normally up to the moment when the aeroplane was flying over the eastern part of Ukraine. At 13.20 UTC a 9N314M warhead, launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system from a 320-square-kilometre area in the eastern part of Ukraine, detonated to the left and above the cockpit. The forward section of the aircraft was penetrated by hundreds of high-energy objects coming from the warhead. As a result of the impact and the subsequent blast, the three crew members in the cockpit were killed immediately and the aeroplane broke up in the air. Wreckage from the aeroplane was distributed over various sites within an area of 50 square kilometres. All 298 occupants were killed.
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The report states that Ukraine had sufficient reason to close the airspace over the eastern part of Ukraine as a precaution before the disaster due to the armed conflict in the region. It notes that, despite the danger, the airspace over the eastern part of Ukraine was much in use: between July 14 and 17, 2014, 61 operators from 32 countries routed their flights through this airspace. On the day of the crash, until the airspace was closed, 160 commercial airliners flew over the area.