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 The crash over pro-Russian rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine
on July 17 killed 298 people, two thirds of them from the
Netherlands.
Ukraine and Western countries accuse the rebels of shooting it down
with an advanced, Russian-made missile. The main rebel leader
repeated earlier assertions that his forces did not possess such
weapons.
The report said MH17 crashed due to a "large number of high-energy
objects" penetrating the fuselage. "There are no indications that
the MH17 crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the
crew," it said.
Although the report did not mention a missile, impact with a large
number of fragments would be consistent with a "proximity" warhead,
designed to explode in the air and hurl shrapnel at its target, said
Tim Ripley, a defense analyst with Jane's Defense Weekly magazine.
Such warheads can be fitted to a number of missiles, including the
Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile that Ukraine and Western
allies, including the United States, say was fired by separatists
who probably hit the airliner by accident.
"The preliminary report suggests that high energy objects penetrated
the aircraft and led it to break up midair," Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak said in a statement. "This leads to the strong
suspicion that a surface-to-air missile brought MH17 down, but
further investigative work is needed before we can be certain," he
added.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was still too early to
assign blame: "We need to be careful not to draw conclusion too
quickly," he told journalists. "The Netherlands is leading an
investigation. Step-by-step, the experts are working to reach
irrefutable conclusions."
A final report by the board is not expected until mid 2015. The
Netherlands is also running a separate investigation into the
possibility of criminal charges against suspected culprits.
Russian authorities have suggested in the past that other theories
were possible, including that the plane may have been shot down from
the air. However, the report found no military aircraft in the
vicinity.
"It's consistent with a hit by a ground missile," said Joris
Melkert, a lecturer in aerospace engineering at the Technical
University of Delft. "What could cause a pattern of high velocity
particles 10 kilometers up in the sky? As far as I can see, the only
thing that could do that is a rocket," he said. "The report finds
there were only three other aircraft in the vicinity: two Boeing
777s and one Airbus A330, so both civilian, which makes the
surface-to-air missile more likely."
WAR ZONE
The investigation has been difficult because the crash took place in
a war zone. Dutch investigators were unable to reach the crash site
because of fighting between pro-Russian militants and Ukrainian
government forces. A small number of Malaysian inspectors did reach
the site.
Malaysian authorities handed over some of the wreckage for
examination, but a site visit would greatly help the Dutch-led
investigation, said Tjibbe Joustra, head of the Safety Board.
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"There are elements we are interested in. The cockpit is very
important because a lot of those objects penetrated the cockpit, he
said, adding that flight instruments also contain data not
registered by the flight data recorders.
A series of photographs of the wreckage detailed in the report
showed multiple shrapnel impacts. The early findings were based on
data retrieved from the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data
recorder, satellite and other images, and radar information.
Joustra said the investigators had found no evidence that the flight
recorders were tampered with. The recorders were recovered by rebels
and turned over to Malaysia. Kiev and its Western allies, including
the United States, say separatists were supplied from Russia with a
BUK, an advanced system with large missiles that have enough range
to hit an airliner at cruising height.
The separatists have mostly denied ever possessing such missiles,
although one separatist leader told Reuters in July that they did in
fact have one on the day the plane was shot down. Moscow denies
supplying the rebels with weapons.
"I can say only one thing. We just don't have the (military)
equipment which could bring down a passenger Boeing, including this
Malaysian plane," Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the rebel
self-declared Donetsk People's Republic said on Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the day after the crash that
"evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air
missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by
Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine".
The Dutch report is "an initial, provisional sequence of events" and
it could take up to a year for a final report to be concluded, the
board said.
Nearly two months after the crash, Tuesday's release is several
weeks past a 4 week timeframe generally required by the
International Civil Aviation Organization. Extra time was given due
to the complex nature of the MH17 case.
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Additional reporting by Thomas
Escritt and Peter Graff; Editing by Peter Graff)
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