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| Journalists take images of part of the reconstructed forward section of the fuselage after the presentation of the Dutch Safety Board's final report into what caused Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 to break up high over Eastern Ukraine last year, killing all 298 people on board, during a press conference in Gilze-Rijen, central Netherlands, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015. |
GILZE-RIJEN
AIR BASE, Netherlands (AP) -- The missile shot skyward from
war-ravaged eastern Ukraine. With deadly accuracy more than six miles
up, it detonated just in front of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner,
sending hundreds of jagged steel shards ripping through its aluminum
skin at up to 5,600 mph and shearing the cockpit from the rest of the
plane.
The two pilots and purser in the
cockpit died instantly, and the Boeing 777 disintegrated and fell to
earth, killing the rest of the 298 men, women and children aboard Flight
17 on July 17, 2014, Dutch investigators said Tuesday in a long-awaited
report.
Some of the victims may have been
conscious for 60 to 90 seconds, the Dutch Safety Board said, but they
probably were not fully aware of what was happening in the
oxygen-starved, freezing chaos. The tornado-like airflow surging through
the doomed jet as it came apart was powerful enough to tear off
people's clothes and leave naked corpses amid the fields of sunflowers.
The
15-month Dutch investigation blamed a Soviet-made surface-to-air Buk
missile for downing the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight, but it did not
explicitly say who had fired it. It identified an area of 320 square
kilometers (120 square miles) where it said the launch must have taken
place, and all of the land was in the hands of pro-Russian separatists
fighting Ukrainian forces at the time of the disaster, according to
daily maps of fighting released by the Ukrainian National Security
Council.
The Dutch Safety Board also found
that the tragedy wouldn't have happened if the airspace of eastern
Ukraine had been totally closed to passenger planes as fighting raged
below.
"Our investigation showed that all
parties regarded the conflict in eastern part of Ukraine from a military
perspective. Nobody gave any thought of a possible threat to civil
aviation," Safety Board chairman Tjibbe Joustra said in releasing the
report at a military base in the southern Netherlands.
He
spoke in front of the partially reassembled red, white and blue
Malaysian jetliner, much of the left side of its mangled fuselage front
riddled with shrapnel holes.
Russian officials
were prompt to dismiss the Dutch report, with Deputy Foreign Minister
Sergei Ryabkov calling it an obvious "attempt to make a biased
conclusion, in essence to carry out a political order."
Earlier
Tuesday, the Buk's manufacturer presented its own report trying to
clear the separatists, and Russia itself, of any involvement.
The
Russian state-controlled consortium Almaz-Antey said it conducted
experiments, including one in which a Buk missile was detonated near the
nose of an airplane similar to a 777, and it contended they
contradicted the conclusion that a Buk missile of the kind used by the
Russians destroyed Flight 17. Almaz-Antey had earlier suggested that it
could have been a model of Buk that is no longer in service with the
Russian military but is part of Ukraine's arsenal.
It
said the experiments also rebutted claims the missile was fired from
Snizhne, a village that was under rebel control. An Associated Press
reporter saw a Buk missile system in that vicinity on the same day.
Despite
the moves by Moscow, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands
called on Russia to fully cooperate with a separate criminal
investigation that Dutch prosecutors are conducting into the downing of
the plane, in which 196 Dutch nationals died.
Rutte said a key priority "is now tracking down and prosecuting the perpetrators."
"On
July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, in broad daylight, a passenger
airplane was shot out of the sky with a Buk missile," he said. The
safety board's conclusions confirmed "some of our most shocking
suspicions," he added.
In a statement, the
Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team said it has already identified
"persons of interest" in the probe, but said it is "not easy" to find
witnesses, especially ones willing to make a statement. They said their
probe will stretch into 2016.
The Netherlands
has headed the international investigation into the disaster because
most victims were Dutch. Ukraine, in whose airspace the incident
occurred, agreed to let the Netherlands take the lead.
At
U.N. headquarters, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin defended
his country's decision not to close its airspace, saying no one at the
time was aware of the possibility that Russia had brought highly
sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles into Ukraine.
Klimkin
also praised the Dutch report as "fully unbiased and transparent," and
said what now is needed is for a criminal investigation to reveal the
chain of command and bring those responsible to justice.
Malaysia's
Prime Minister Najib Razak also said the world "must move forward
toward ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for this
murderous act." There were 43 Malaysians aboard, the second-highest
total.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie
Bishop said on Wednesday that her government would not been bullied by
Russia in Australia's pursuit of justice.
Bishop told Seven Network television that a criminal investigation of the "atrocity" will continue.
"We
certainly won't be bullied by anyone in our pursuit of justice for the
families of those aboard," Bishop told the Seven Network.
Australia had the third largest number of victims with 39 Australian citizens and permanent residents aboard.
Dutch
investigators said the missile detonated less than a meter (3.3 feet)
from the plane, to the left side of the cockpit, sending the shrapnel
into the plane at speeds of up to 9,000 kph (5,600 mph).
Joustra
said missile fragments found in the cockpit crew's bodies, as well as
paint traces, helped investigators to identify the Buk. Some of the
pieces of metal, he said, were shaped like cubes or "bow ties" - a
detail weapons experts called extremely significant.
"The
overall picture is conclusive - a 9M38M1 surface-to-air missile from a
Buk operated from rebel-held territory in east Ukraine was responsible
for the shooting down of MH17," said Nick de Larrinaga, Europe editor
for IHS Jane's Defense Weekly.
Joustra said
the Russian government had been given the opportunity to review the
report's conclusions in advance, and that it maintained it was
impossible to determine the type of missile or warhead that struck the
Boeing with certainty.
The missile explosion caused a "deafening sound wave" anyone still alive aboard would have heard, the Dutch report said.
The
sudden decompression, reduced oxygen levels and extreme cold of minus
40-50 degrees Celsius (minus-40-58 degrees Fahrenheit) may have killed
some people. As the high winds tore through the cabin, hand baggage and
other personal belongings may have become lethal projectiles.
As
the mangled, pilotless jet went into its deadly dive from 33,000 feet,
those who hadn't already died may have suffered dizziness, nausea and,
finally, blackout and death.
Rob Fredriksz,
whose son Bryce was aboard Flight 17, said he was relieved to hear that
the passengers died almost instantly and "absolutely felt and knew
nothing."
Paul Guard, an Australian man whose
parents Jill and Roger died aboard Flight 17, said on Wednesday he
believes the Russians aren't the only ones at fault.
"Russia's
got a role and they haven't been very helpful. So I blame Russia
partially but not completely. There are many other players that are also
to blame," Guard told Nine Network television in the Queensland state
capital Brisbane.
Key findings of the
investigation were given to families of victims before the report was
released, and Fredriksz said some relatives became emotional when they
were shown an animation portraying the downing of the plane.
On
Tuesday evening, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov,
said Russia was disappointed its experts hadn't been invited to take
part in the Dutch investigation, adding that the refusal to take the
findings of the Buk manufacturer's experiments into account reflected a
biased approach.
Commenting on Ukraine blaming
Russia-backed separatists for downing the plane, Peskov said that
"prior to the completion of the probe, it's inadmissible to put labels
and name culprits."
U.S. National Security
Council spokesman Ned Price said the Dutch investigation was conducted
in a professional manner and should serve as the basis for further work
to identify those responsible for the aircraft's destruction.
In
the village of Hrabove where the jet came down, Lyudmila Grigoryak -
whose house was the closest to the crash site - brought red carnations
Tuesday to the field where small pieces of the fuselage are still
scattered.
Unlike a year and a half ago when
heavy fighting was just nearby, the area is quiet and deserted. All the
camouflaged rebels who were patrolling the area and manning checkpoints
are gone.
