MH17 jet crash: ‘high energy objects’ hit plane – report
A preliminary report into the causes of the MH17 plane crash over Ukraine says the damage was caused by numerous objects hitting the plane from the outside.
The wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which fell from the sky in Ukraine in July, was “consistent with the damage that would be expected from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside”, said Dutch crash investigaters.
There was no evidence of technical faults or any emergency in the cockpit, the preliminary report found, and it did not apportion blame or speculate as to who might be behind the “objects”. But the damage could be considered consistent with the accusation that the plane was brought down by a BUK surface-to-air missile.
The aircraft wreckage, which was distributed over a large area, indicated that the Boeing 777 had split into many pieces in the air above eastern Ukraine while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, said the Dutch Safety Board (DSB).
Russian-backed separatists have been accused of shooting the plane down. Russian officials have rejected any involvement, and accused the air force in Ukraine of being behind the incident.
A total of 298 people, including 10 Britons, died in the 17 July incident, which came only months after another Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared over the Indian Ocean.
Read the DSB report in full
The DSB also said the black boxes recovered from the war-torn crash site in Ukraine showed no evidence of manipulation.
The black box cockpit voice recorder (CVR) which provided a record of pilots’ conversations “gave no indication of any malfunction or emergency” before the crash, the report said, and the black box flight data recorder (FDR) showed no evidence of technical malfunctions or warnings. Both recordings ended at three seconds past 1.20pm local time.
Tjibbe Joustra, DSB chairman, said: “The MH17 crash has shocked the world and raised many questions… The initial results of the investigation point towards an external cause of the MH17 crash. 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.”
At the time of the crash, the aircraft was flying at a height of 33,000ft in the eastern part of Ukraine. It was flying on a constant heading, speed and altitude when the FDR ended, the DSB report said.